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ALSO, AN EXPOSURE OF 




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AND THE 



Second Sight Mystery, 



(Our Ned.) 



All things being are in mystery : we expound mysteries by mysteries ; 
And yet the secret of them all is one in simple grandeur : 
All intricate, yet each path plain, to those who know the way ; 
All unapproachable, yet easy of access, to them that hold the key. 



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PHILADELPHIA: 
WYMAN THE WIZARD, PUBLISHER. 

C. E. P. BRINCKLGE & CO., PRINTERS, No. 23 NORTH SIXTH STREET. 

18 6 0. 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1860, by 

JOHN WYMAN, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of 

Pennsylvania. 






Sieijiriloqufeh) WfaJe jksjfi &c. 



Description of the Magician's Table, 
AS USED BY EVERY PROFESSOR OF MAGIC. 

The following cut gives a correct view of a magi- 
cian's table ; and exhibits to the reader a ready ex- 
planation of many of their best tricks, manner of 
execution, etc. These tables are, however, dispensed 
with by many of the most skilful magicians, and dex- 
terity of movement is now more relied upon than 
mechanical contrivance. Professor Robert Houdon, 
of Paris ; William Feikle, the Russian magician, now 
creating a great excitement in London ; and Professor 
Wyman, who is never behind the age in improvements 
in his art, have entirely dispensed with the use of the 
table. 

When a secret confederate is required, have a table 
four and a half feet long, two feet eight inches high, 
two feet nine inches wide, with a curtain round it, 
twenty-two inches deep. In the top of this table are 
several secret square holes, of different sizes, from three 
to five inches across ; these having covers which ex- 
actly fit, and hung upon concealed hinges, so that they 
may be let down ; but when lying flat, the top of the 
table appears to present a perfect surface. Under this 
surface are buttons, which prevent those lids from 
falling down when not made use of. Under the top 

3 



4 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

of the table is fastened a box, or drawer, open at the 
top, and at the side which is farthest from the specta- 
tors. This box is about twenty inches deep, and con- 
cealed by the curtain ; and into this box is placed the 
secret agent, who assists the performer. 




McAllister's Great Trick. 
CUTTING OFF THE NOSE. 

McAllister was a Scotchman by birth, — a man of 
superior abilities and great mechanical genius. His 
name stood high as a magician in Spain, France, and 
Portugal ; and in the United States he commanded a 
position in the front rank as a performer, as well as a 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 5 

gentleman and scholar. With Americans he was 
always very popular, drawing large houses in every 
place where he gave his really excellent entertainments. 
McAllister died in Keokuk, Iowa, a few years since, 
lamented by many warm admirers and devoted friends. 
His professional success in life is, doubtless, to be 
attributed to his easy manner, graceful deportment, 
and gentlemanly address, and the skill of his manager. 
This feat, though it has a very horrifying appear- 
ance, need cause no alarm, as it is one of the simplest 
tricks which can be attempted. The performer ought 
to be a short distance from the company when it is to 
be performed, and must be provided with two clasp- 
knives, one of which must have a small semi-circle cut 
out of it — the other being a common knife ; of course 
you show the latter to the company as the only instru- 
ment in your possession ; you must also provide your- 
self with a small piece of sponge soaked in wine, and, 
having caused an individual to sit down, you imme- 
diately proceed to work, by slipping the true knife 
into your pocket, and producing the other in its place ; 
then put your left hand, with the sponge in it, upon 
the person's brow, and pass the knife gently over his 
nose, so that the semi-circle which is in the knife will 
cause it to descend, and, to all appearance, cut into his 
nose, while you squeeze the sponge gently, so that it 
may appear to bleed. 



b VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

To Pour Wine, Vinegar, and Water out of 
the Same Bottle. 

PROFESSOR ANDERSON'S TRICK. 

Professor John H. Anderson, the "Wizard of the 
North, has the most extensive reputation, as a magi- 
cian, of any person living, having performed before all 
the crowned heads of Europe, and also in all the 
principal cities of the United States to crowded houses. 
He is very pleasing in his address, and unequalled in 
the manner of performing his feats. He is a Scotch- 
man by birth, and now giving his pleasing entertain- 
ments in the United States. Professor Anderson has 
probably made more money in this country than any 
other performer in the profession. 

This little experiment will occasion contradiction 
with some, and amusement to all. 

Provide a common black junk bottle, with rather a 
large opening at the mouth ; have three tin tubes the 
same height as the bottle, inside, with three holes at 
the sides near the end of each tube, which you intro- 
duce into three small bladders ; the openings being 
tied two-thirds of the distance of the length of the 
tubes from the bottom. The bladders with the tubes 
are now placed in the bottle ; fill them, separately, 
with wine, vinegar, and water ; the water and vinegar 
being colored the same as the wine. These tubes can 
be fastened in the neck of the bottle with cork, and 
come up even with the mouth of the bottle. If you 
wish to pour out wine, take the bottle by the neck 
with your hand, placing your thumb over the other 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 7 

two holes of the tubes ; the same with respect to the 
others. 

To Perform the Experiment. — Bring the bottle 
forward, and a waiter with three small wine-glasses, 
which you fill with the three different liquids, and 
present the same to the gentlemen. At the same time, 
ask if the wine is not excellent ? One will say, " Very 
good;" the other, " ? Tis nothing but vinegar;" and 
the third will answer, " 'Tis water!" You will then 
feign surprise, and tell them they must be in jest. 
You now say that you will throw away the contents, 
and fill the glasses again. This you do, and present 
wine to the one who had vinegar before, water to the 
one who had wine, and vinegar to the other, who had 
water. They will begin to contradict one another. 
Tell the gentlemen, " Settle the dispute among your- 
selves. I have tried my best to satisfy you, and am 
well convinced that the fault must be in your sense of 
taste : it cannot be my fault. If matters are not all 
right, I suspect that the wine-sellers have turned 
jugglers, and played us an odd trick ; but I will soon 
find out, by taking a glass of wine myself, — which he 
drinks to the health of his audience. 



The Inexhaustible Bottle. 

This well-known trick has many puzzling points for 
those who witnesss McAllister, Wyman, or Anderson 
pour over one hundred glasses of liquor from a small 
bottle ; and, what adds to the astonishment of the 
audience, is to see ten or twenty kinds flow from the 



8 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

same bottle. The trick is thus explained : The glasses 
are so small that a quart bottle will fill seventy-five or 
a hundred ; the glasses are arranged on a tray in a 
particular manner by the wizard, before the perform- 
ance begins. The bottle is filled with the following 
mixture : spirits-of-wine, water, and sugar ; in the 
bottom of each glass is a drop or two of Paul de 
Veves' Flavoring Extract, as Noyeau, Vanilla, Lemon, 
Punch, Essence of Brandy, Port, Sherry, &c. You 
are thus enabled to convert a tolerable resemblance of 
any fluid that is likely to be called for, and you can 
thus supply more than one hundred persons a half sip 
of their favorite beverage from the inexhaustible 
bottle. 



<> O B>- 



The Egyptian Fluids ; or, Impossibilities 
Accomplished. 

AS PERFORMED BY ROBT. HOUDON, OF PARIS. 

Professor Houdon, a native of France, stands 
first among European magicians, and in Paris and 
London is exceedingly popular. No professor of the 
" black art" has ever equalled him, either in the exe- 
cution of his tricks, or the accumulation of money ; 
he being, without doubt, the richest magician in the 
world ! So great was his popularity, that Louis 
Napoleon selected him for a foreign diplomatic mis- 
sion, and his success was as unexpected as it was 
remarkable. By the assistance of his art, he gained 
the friendship of the foreign courts, and became at 
once flattered and beloved, and consequently accom- 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 9 

plished the object of his mission, and, on his return, 
received a very handsome reward for his services. 

Mix wine and water together, then separate them 
by means of a red and white tape. To perform this 
trick, you must have three covers (tin) made, of an 
obeliatic form, terminating at about one inch and a 
half on top ; upon the top of two of these covers is 
soldered a piece of thick brass, copper, or lead, say 
about a quarter of an inch in thickness ; in the centre 
make a hole about the same in diameter, a^bout two 
inches from the top, and on the inside will be a parti- 
tion or floor, through the centre of which make a small 
hole (this partition must be water-tight). Previous 
to performing the trick, fill the two covers (the tops 
of them), one with water, the other with wine ; then 
cork them well, which excludes the air, and conse- 
quently keeps the liquid from coming out at the small 
hole made in the centre of the partition ; then take 
two sound tumblers, and put about as much water in 
one as there is water in one of the covers ; place the 
cover over that, the tumbler that has the water ; then 
put about the same quantity of wine in the other 
tumbler as there is in the oth^r cover, and place that 
cover over it ; now have tumbler with a hole through 
the bottom (made with a drill) ; have this hole closed 
with a long peg from the under side ; then through 
your trick-table have a small auger-hole made to admit 
the peg; this tumbler must also be covered with a 
similar cover in external appearance. You then take the 
covers off the tumblers containing water and wine, and, in 
presence of the audience, mix the two liquids ; then 
pour both into the tumbler that has the hole through 



10 VENTRILOQUISM .MADE EASY, &C. 

the bottom ; place the tumblers back, and cover them 
over ; now lift the tumbler up containing the mixture, 
that the audience may see it (keeping your hand in 
front of the peg) ; place it back with peg through 
the hole, cover it over ; then take a red and white tape 
string that has previously been fastened to a small 
stick, and place it in the top of the cover that is over 
the false tumbler ; then take the end of the red tape, 
which has a small wire to it, and, after removing the 
cork from the cover over the wine, drop the end of the 
wire into the hole. The air is then let into the wine, 
which lets it run down into the tumblers underneath. 
Do likewise with the white tape ; then reach your 
hand under the table and draw the peg out of the 
tumbler and let the mixture run down into a tumbler 
or cup secreted there for that purpose ; now remove 
the covers and show the audience that the tumbler 
you poured the mixture into is empty, and the one 
you poured it out of contains it again, which will 
greatly astonish them. 

*»&•+ 

Wyman's Great Disappearance Trick ! 

AS PERFORMED BY*HIM IN ALL THE PRIN- 
CIPAL CITIES OF THE UNION. 

John Wyman, Jr., the great American Wizard 
and celebrated Ventriloquist, is, without doubt, more 
favorably known to the American people than any 
magician and ventriloquist living, and has been a long 
time before the public. His performances are so well 
known and popular, that they require no encomiums 
from us, and, notwithstanding their frequent repeti- 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. II 

tions, the same unbounded success is sure to follow each 
representation. Mr. Wyman had many popular rivals 
to contend with, but has lived to see the day of his 
complete triumph, being at this day the greatest 
magician in America, and probably the most wonderful 
ventriloquist in the world ! In personal appearance 
Mr. Wyman has the advantage of many of his rivals, 
having a fine form, pleasing, frank and manly counte- 
nance, and a general address almost faultless. No 
man in the same profession has held higher positions in 
social life, nor has more warm personal friends. He 
has played successful engagements in all of the prin- 
cipal places of amusement in the United States, and 
commanded the highest prices paid the best native 
artists. Mr. Wyman's performance is unexceptionable 
in character, and never loses the dignity always found 
associated with first-class entertainments. His man- 
ner is easy, off-hand, and graceful. Quick at repartee, 
and never at a loss for a word while addressing his 
audiences. His social converse with his audience has 
been one principal feature in his exhibitions, making 
every person present a participator in the amusements 
of the evening ; at home with every one, not haughty 
or egotistical, and consequently has hosts of friends 
wherever he performs. He has been offered brilliant 
engagements in Europe and California ; but his great 
success in this country is probably his chief reason for 
not accepting the same. To sum up in a few words, 
Professor Wyman is probably the most successful 
American magician in the country, having amassed 
sufficient wealth to place him in an independent posi- 
tion for life. 



12 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 




Provide a table with four legs upon castors, marked 
A, in length 4 feet 6 inches, 3 feet high, 2 feet 4 inches 
wide — the depth of rim round the table 5 inches, and 
2 inches within the edge, as common to most tables. 
In the top of the table is a round hole 21 inches 
across, over which is a cover that fits and makes the 
top appear sound. The cover is connected with the 
top by two pins, opposite each other, so that pressing 
the part D, the largest part will be raised. Under the 
top of the table is a false bottom marked B, attached 
to the top by a strong cloth, which folds in the middle 
like a pair of bellows, (represented by the dotted lines), 
so as to allow the bottom to sink down 18 inches, and 
guided by grooves in the inner part of the legs of the 
table. .This will leave sufficient room between the 
top and false bottom to conceal a person. There must 
be a curtain (marked C) round the table from the top, 
20 inches deep, to prevent the false bottom from being 
seen. When down it is kept up in its place by a couple 
of buttons on the frame of the table. 

The cover is made of black muslin ; the bottom is 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 13 

of wood. The cover is to be 6 feet high, with hoops 
about 15 inches apart, which will prevent the sack from 
closing when the sack is extended (see E). The bot- 
tom of the cover has a hole the same size as the table, 
so that when you press on the small part of the cover 
D, you can raise both covers at the same time. 

To Perform this Experiment. — Bring the table 
forward, and raise the curtain, to convince the company 
that it is a table of ordinary description. You next 
show the sack, and strike the bottom to show it is 
solid wood. Put the sack on the table, exactly over 
the concealed hole ; then let the person who is to 
disappear step upon the wood bottom of the sack. 
Then raise the sack over the head, and tie it fast with 
one end of a rope, one end of which passes through a 
pulley in the ceiling ; then haul the rope tight. In 
the meantime, the person in the sack treads upon the 
part of cover marked D, which raises both at once, 
and allows the person a free passage into the vacant 
part of the table. The covers will of their own weight 
fall in their proper place. To move the table from 
under the sack, say a few magical words, and fire a 
pistol. Then let the sack fall flat upon the floor. 



Herr Alexandre's Mode of Performing the 
Egg-Bag Trick. 

Herr Alexandre is a German by birth, and a rare 
specimen of the gentleman and scholar, both on and 
off the stage. He was always dignified in his per- 
formance, never descending to the low vulgarity and 



14 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

common-place wit of the buffoon. He at all times 
was polite, affable, easy, and graceful in manner, and 
an ornament to his profession. There are many itine- 
rant magicians who have assumed the name of this 
distinguished gentleman ; but the original Herr Alex- 
andre has not been in this country for the past eight 
or nine years. In personal appearance he was com- 
manding, and added to a large, muscular frame, a 
stately and erect appearance. His company was 
courted by the learned of both sexes, and in the private 
circle he was very witty, and had pleasing conversa- 
tional powers. 

Take a bag and exhibit it to the audience, turn the 
bag inside-out, then back again, after which take sev- 
eral eggs out of it. To perform this trick, you have 
a bag about half a yard wide, and about five-eighths 
deep, made of black cambric ; then take strips of the 
same cloth about three inches wide and sew them on 
each side of the strip lengthwise of the bag, — these 
are called cells, it is in these that the eggs are placed ; 
let the end of the cells be closed at the mouth of the 
large bag, so that the mouth of the cells will be the 
reverse of that of the large bag, — these are filled with 
eggs made of wood, with the exception of one or two 
natural eggs, which they take out first and break, to 
convince the audience that they are all genuine ; when 
they turn the bag they keep these cells next to them, 
and as the large bag is turned upside-down, the eggs 
are in the bottom of the cells at the mouth of the 
large bag ; the performer will then catch the bag just 
above the eggs, and give it a few raps across the 
other hand, to convince the audience that there is 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 15 

nothing in it, after which he turns the bag again and 
takes out several eggs, which to the audience is a great 
mystery. 

Mons. Adrian's Wonderful Feat. 
THE ENCHANTED COIN. 

Mons. Adrian, a Frenchman by birth, was a very 
skillful magician, and remarkable for his agility and 
surprising dexterity, though he had reached the ad- 
vanced age of seventy-seven when I last saw him per- 
form. He was a very popular man in his time, and 
was very successful in his tour through this country. 
There are many "Mons. Adrians" at the present day, 
imitating, but not performing like the original. It is, 
perhaps, needless to add that those now passing under 
the name are base imitators, and very readily recog- 
nized as such when seen by any person at all familiar 
with Adrian's peculiar style. 

Put fifteen pieces of money into a hat, take out five 
and mysteriously pass them back into the hat, and it 
covered. To do this trick, you must have in your left 
hand a plate, and under the plate and in your left 
hand have previously placed five pieces of coin such 
as you will have placed in the hat. After you have 
counted the fifteen pieces into the hat, you then ask 
the person whom you have selected from the audience 
to assist you in performing the tricks, to count the 
money out of the hat into the plate, to see that there 
is no mistake, after which you turn the money out of 
the hat into the plate, to see that there is no mistake, 
after which you turn the money out of the plate into 



16 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

the hat, and at the same time letting fall the five pieces 
you have secreted in your hand under the plate. You 
then ask him to draw out five pieces, which will still 
leave fifteen. You take the five that are drawn out 
and place them in a drawer (see umbrella factory) ; 
then you go through the magic words, Presto/ Pas- 
cillo! Pass! You then open the drawer, (after 
placing your finger on the spring to hold the inside 
drawer in which the five pieces were placed,) and show 
the audience that the five pieces are gone. You then 
tell him to get the hat and see how many pieces are 
in it. He gets the hat, and, to the surprise of all, he 
counts the original number, fifteen. 



Astonishing Hindoo Miracle, 

PERFORMED BY WILLIAM MARSHALL, THE 
ORIGINAL FAKIR OF AVA. 

William Marshall, or Marchael, as originally 
written, was born in Persia. His father, a Scotch 
officer, married a Persian lady. 

Marshall was a very shrewd, far-seeing, ingenious 
man, and many of our leading theatrical managers 
will remember his cunning devices to secure to himself 
the patronage of the public. He once palmed himself 
on to "Mr. Jones, of Vauxhall Garden, New York, as 
Rahab Ben Marchael, the Arab Magician, and se- 
cured a good engagement. Assuming the habits and 
manners of the Arabs, he was not easily detected. 
Under this title he created quite an excitement in this 
country. At another time, he appeared in Baltimore, 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 17 

announced as ' ; a native wealthy citizen, who would 
transport his audience to the Temple of Ishbaham, in 
Persia," and all for "the benefit of the poor of the city. " 
The consequence was, the Law Building Hall was 
nightly crowded, until the disguise was exposed, when 
he fled to other cities. He was an interesting per- 
former and a good lecturer. There are many coun- 
terfeit Fakirs, but none who equal the original. The 
Fakir died in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1846. 

Take a child and place it on a table, then turn a 
basket over it. The child cries. The performer grows 
indignant, and pierces a sword through the basket. 
The child shrieks, and apparently struggles in death. 
The sword is withdrawn, and blood drips from it. The 
basket is removed, but no child to be seen. To do 
this trick, you have to use the trick-table, and also 
have a confederate. The table is made with a trap- 
door, fastened on the underside of the table. The 
child is trained up to the trick, and consequently knows 
when to cry, and when to not. The child is placed 
upon the table on the trap-door, at which time it com- 
mences to cry. A basket is then placed over it, on 
the inside of which and next to the performer is fast- 
ened a piece of common sponge saturated with blood 
or its representative. While the performer is making 
preparation to complete the trick, his confederate 
opens the trap-door of the table, and lets the child 
down, but leaves the door open. The child still con- 
tinues to cry. The performer apparently becomes 
indignant, and takes a sword and pierces it through 
the basket, and at the same time through the sponge 
saturated with blood, at which time the child shrieks. 

B 



18 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

Then the confederate closes the door, which gives the 
sound of the child a dying appearance. After the 
sword is withdrawn, the blood that was in the sponge 
is that which drips from it. This trick produces more 
terrific sensation than almost any other trick that is 
performed. 



Little Bobby and the Bag. 
AS PERFORMED BY SIGNOR BLITZ. 

Signor Blitz came to the United States about 
twenty-five years since, with an excellent European 
reputation as a magician, and has won many laurels in 
addition, while performing in this country. He is now 
the oldest magician in the United States, and doubtless, 
equal to the best. He is very eccentric in his habits, but 
has a kind disposition, frequently aiding the unfortunate 
and distressed. He has accumulated a large property, 
owning valuable real estate in Brooklyn and Philadel- 
phia. Mr. Blitz has been one of the most successful 
performers, pecuniarily speaking, in the country, 
having, by great perseverance and severe mental 
application, amassed a handsome fortune. As a per- 
former, he is very pleasing, especially to ladies and 
children, selecting such experiments as serve to win 
the child's attention, and likewise enlist the interest 
of children of a larger growth. He is considered an 
excellent ventriloquist, and his plate-dancing has never 
been equalled in America. He has likewise, through 
patient toil and by dint of the most extraordinary 
industry, succeeded in learning canary birds to perform 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 



19 





the most wonderful feats, and a great portion of his 
success is, doubtless, to be attributed to these learned 
canary birds. 

This famous and 
historical feat (it 
has been practised 
in all ages, and in 
every country un- 
der the sun), and 
perhaps more fa- 
miliarly known as 

the " Doll Trick," is thus performed : 
You must be provided with the fig- 
ure of a man made of wood, about 
the size of a small Dutch doll, the 
head of which takes off and on by 
means of a peg in the neck, which 
fits into an aperture in the body. 
You must also have a cloth cap within for the purpose 
of concealing the head ; but this must be very neatly 
constructed, in order that it may 
not be readily perceived. Now 
show your little man to the assem- 
bled company, saying, il Gentlemen, 
I call this my bonus genius." Then 
show the cap, saying, " This, gen- 
tlemen, is his coat." Add, "Now 
look as steadily at him as ever you 
can, yet, nevertheless, I will deceive 
you." Then hold the cap above 
your face, and take the little man 
in your right hand, and put his 




20 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

head through the hole of the cap, as represented in 
the engraving. Proceed to describe the doll's virtues 
as eloquently as you like, saying, " Now, he's a great 
traveller. He is ready to go any message I like to 
send him on — to France, to Spain, to Constantinople, 
to the Crimea, or to the North or South Pole, wherever 
and whichever you like ; but he must have some money 
to pay his expenses." Then pull out your right hand 
from under the cap, and with it the body of the doll 
privately; put your right hand into your pocket (as 
if you were feeling for money), and leave the body 
there. Then take your hand out of your pocket, and 
say, " There is a shilling for you ; and now be off on 
your travels, sir." Then turn the head and say, "But 
he must look about him before he goes. Then say, 
(setting your forefinger upon his head,) "Just as I 
thrust my finger down he shall vanish ;" and imme- 
diately, with the assistance of your left hand, that is 
under the cap, convey his head into the little bag that 
is within the cap ; then turn the cap about, and, knock- 
ing it on the palm of your hand, say, "See, he is 
gone !" Take your cap and hold it up again, drawing 
the head out of the little bag, and say, "Hei genius 
mei velocissimus, ubi," and give a whistle ; at the sanw 
time thrust the head up through the hole in the cap, 
and hold the head by the peg, and turn it about. You 
can thus cause the doll to appear and disappear as 
many times as you like, to the great amazement and 
bewilderment of the company. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 



2L 



The Mysterious Desk. 
PERFORMED BY PROFESSOR HARRINGTON. 

Jonathan Harrington, the New England Magi- 
cian and Yentriloquist, was born in Boston, Mass., and 
has been many years before the public of New England. 
He commenced his career at a very early age, and his 
course has been onward and upward until at the pre- 
sent day he stands without a rival in New England. 
Mr. Harrington was at one time the proprietor of the 
New England Museum, located in Boston. He has 
had a very successful career, and in the summer months 
rusticates at his fine country-seat in Chelsea, Mass. 
As a performer he is very excellent, and gives general 
satisfaction to a promiscuous audience. 




Have a box made with a lock, five inches long, three 
inches wide, and three inches deep. Have a hole at 
the bottom, (as at A, J one inch square with a piece 
of wood that will fit the vacancy, and resemble the 
box. It must be hung on small hinges, (as marked 
B,) so that you can raise the block with your finger. 
It will fall of itself in its place. Have a block three 
inches square (marked C), with a hole (D) one inch 
long, nearly as deep and a little wider than a dime. 



22 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

Have, also, a riband one yard long, and fastened to 
the board (C) at E ; then all is ready for the experi- 
ment. Request one of the company to mark a dime, 
so that it may be identified, and let it be thrown into 
the box ; put the loose end of the riband into the box, 
and request him to lock the same and keep the key ; 
then raise, secretly, the swinging-board (B), and shake 
the box, so that the spectators are assured that the 
coin is inside ; let the coin, at the same time, drop 
through the hole into your, own hand, where you con- 
ceal it. Then place the box on the table, and taktf 
the piece of wood (C) which has the other end of the 
riband fastened to it. Lay the board over a tumbler, 
with the marked side down (F), or that side down 
which has the end of the riband fastened at E and the 
hole (D) ; at the same time, secretly put the coin with 
the bend of the riband into the hole (D). Place the 
tumbler from the box, nearly at the distance the riband 
will now admit, and request two of the company to 
come forward. Let one of them put his hand on the 
board (C), which now covers the tumbler, while the 
5ther person holds his hand on the box ; then take the 
magic rod in your hand, and pass it back and forward 
under the riband, pronouncing some magic words ; give 
a sudden jerk upon the riband, which will pull the bend 
with the coin out of the hole (D) ; the coin will then 
fall in the tumbler. Give it back to the owner, who 
will acknowledge that it is the same that he dropped 
into the box. Ask for the key, open the box, and 
you'll convince the assembly that nothing is there. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 



Professor Jacobs' Lesson on Cooking. 



23 



Jacobs, now in California, is a Jew by birth, and 
has a great reputation in England, Ireland, and Scot- 
land. He is reputed to be in possession of a magnifi- 
cent apparatus, with which he does many very won- 
derful things. 




Take a saucepan, like A, with a long handle, ten 
inches across the top and six inches deep ; have a cover, 
as B, with a rim round it, C, two inches deep, with a 
piece of tin, D, which will fit the inside of rim, C. 
Now fill the secret part, between the real cover, B, and 
the tin, D, with sugar-plums or kisses. Always keep 
the cover on your table. Cut up potatoes and apples 
in your saucepan, A, and hand it round to the com- 
pany for inspection. Return to the table, put on your 
cover, B, well over a candle, so that the tin, D, will 
fall down and expose the candy. Take off the cover, 
and present the confectionery to the audience on plates, 
keeping the saucepan on the table to prevent the trick 
from being discovered. 



Herr Dobler's Coffee and Tea Exchange. 
Herr Dobler, a very popular German magician, 



has never visited the United States. 



He stands high 



24 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 



in his profession, and is, no doubt, a very excellent 
conjurer. 



/ 




Have two canisters made twelve inches high, in- 
cluding the top, four and a half inches in diameter; 
the straight sides being ten inches in height, divided 
across the inside in three separate apartments, as A, 
B, C — the middle division being half an inch wide one 
way, and the width of the canister the other. A and 
C are of equal dimensions. The divisions that form 
the apartment, B, is nine inches high from the bottom. 
The parts A and C have a division sloping down, as 
represented in the cuts. Having described the con- 
struction of the apparatus, now put in A coffee, and 
tea in C, the raw material on the liquid, the same in 
D and F. By turning can No. 1 to the right slowly, 
you pour out the coffee on a plate, — the tea contained 
in the opposite apartment will not run out. Then 
turn can No. 2 to the left, and the tea will appear on 
the plate. Then replace the tea and coffee, by means 
of a funnel, in their respective places. Say some un- 
meaning words, and tip canister No. 1 to the left and 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 25 

No. 2 to the right, and, to the amazement of the au- 
dience, the change will appear to have taken place. 
By the same canisters you may produce hot coffee, 
milk, &c. 



Joe Pentland's Favorite Trick. 
TO PUT A RING THROUGH ONE'S CHEEK. 

Joe Pentland, the famous circus clown, now in 
Europe and creating a sensation, was once a magician, 
travelling with P. T. Barnum, but subsequently relin- 
quished the practice of magic for the circus-ring, 
where he became eminent and won his present celeb- 
rity. 

This is on the same principle as the pre- 
ceding. You must have two rings exactly 
alike, one of which has a notch, which admits 
your cheek. When you have exhibited the 
perfect ring, you change it for the other, and 
privately slip the notch over one side of your 
mouth ; in the meantime you slip the whole ring on 
your stick, hiding it with your hand ; then desire some 
one to hold the end of the stick, whip the ring out of 
your cheek, and smite with it instantly upon the stick, 
concealing it, and whirling the other ring, which you 
hold your hand over, round about the stick 




26 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G, 



Professor Davidson's Bottle Imp. 

AS MADE BY HIM AT BARNUM'S AMERICAN 
MUSEUM, NEW YORK. 

Get three little hollow fig- 
ures of glass, an inch and a 
half high, representing Imps, 
or Harlequin, Columbine, and 
Pantaloon, which may be ob- 
tained of the glass-blowers, 
with a small hole in each of 
their legs. Immerge them into 
water contained in a glass bottle, which should be 
about fifteen inches high, and covered with a bladder 
tied fast over the top. A small quantity of air must 
be left between the bladder and the surface of the 
water. When you think fit to command the figures to 
go down, press your hand hard upon the top, and 
they will immediately sink. 




<•«»» 



Xavier Chaubert's Trick. 
HOW TO EAT FIRE. 

Mons. Chaubert, a Frenchman, was the original 
"Fire King" in this country, being the first man who 
introduced experiments with fire, heat, and poisons. 
He would enter a heated oven of 500 degrees Fahren- 
heit, drink prussic acid, eat phosphorous, claiming to 
have an antidote for any poison, however deadly. Drs. 
Houton and Devine also discovered the secret of eating 
fire, &c, and successfully performed the same extraor- 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 27 

clinary feats. The secret of their performances we 
Expose below : — 

Anoint your tongue with liquid storax, and you 
may put a pair of red hot tongs into your mouth, and 
without hurting yourself, and lick them till they are 
cold. You may also take coals out of the fire, and 
eat them as you would bread. Dip them into brim- 
stone-powder, and the fire will seem more strange, but 
the sulphur puts out the coal ; and if you shut your 
mouth close, you put out the sulphur, and so chew the 
coals and swallow them, which you may do without 
offending the body. If you put a piece of lighted 
charcoal into your mouth, you may suffer a pair of 
bellows to be blown into your mouth continually, and 
receive no hurt ; but your mouth must be quickly 
cleaned, otherwise it will cause a salivation. This is a 
very dangerous trick to be done, and those who prac- 
tice it ought to use all means they can to prevent 
danger. I never saw one of these fire-eaters that had 
a good complexion. 



Professor Whitney's Great Trick of Passing 
a Handkerchief into a Bottle of Wine. 

Professor Whitney, otherwise known as the 
11 Wierd Man," is very popular in the South and West, 
and enjoys a good reputation generally. He is a good 
necromancer, — skillful and clever. His head-quarters 
are at Detroit, Michigan, though he occasionally gets 
off to Toledo, Cleveland, and even as far north as 
Pittsburg. We never saw him perform farther north, 



28 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

and believe his old stamping-ground to be South-west 
and West. 

Place two bottles of wine on the small table ; give 
previously to the secret agent an empty bottle similar 
to the others, a tin tube closed at one end, three inches 
long, that will fit into the neck, and a glass of wine. 
The performer borrows a handkerchief, and makes it 
disappear on the table as in the former experiment. 
The secreted person puts the handkerchief through the 
neck into the empty bottle ; puts the tube which he 
fills with wine, and places it in the neck close to the 
mouth of the bottle, into which he puts a cork. The 
performer states that he will now produce the hand- 
kerchief from one of those bottles standing on the 
table, with which he has had no connection. He takes 
one in each hand, and, in passing round the table, one 
of them is exchanged for the concealed one. He steps 
before the audience and states that he has two bottles 
of wine, and proposes to drink the company's health. 
He draws the cork, and pours out into a glass, which 
he tastes, but remarks that it is not good, — I will try 
the other, which he does, and pronounces it to be ex- 
cellent. He says, u Ladies and gentlemen, in which 
of those two bottles shall I find the handkerchief?" 
They answer variously, which gives the performer the 
chance to select the right one. This he breaks and 
produces the handkerchief, and throws the broken 
glass with the tube aside, so that it shall not be dis- 
covered. He now breaks the other bottle, and the 
company see it contained nothing but wine. He now 
leaves it to the audience to find out the deception the 
best way they can. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 29 

Cut a Handkerchief in Pieces, and make it 
Whole again. 

PERFORMED BY MONS. PHILLIPPI. 

Mons. Phillippi, a French magician, unable to 
speak the English language, came to this country 
about fifteen years ago. He performed in several of 
our large cities ; but, owing to his lack of knowledge 
of our language, was compelled to return to France, 
unsuccessful. Phillippi w r as a very clever magician, 
an ingenious mechanic and an excellent chemist. H& 
was the inventor of the li Orange Tree," and first in- 
troduced this beautiful illusion to the public. 

This feat, strange as it appears, is very simple. The 
performer must have a confederate, who has two hand- 
kerchiefs of the same quality, and with the same mark, 
one of which he throws upon the stage to perform the 
feat with. The performer takes care to put this hand- 
kerchief uppermost in making the bundle, though he 
affects to mix them together promiscuously. The per- 
son whom he desires to draw one of the handkerchiefs 
naturally takes that which comes first to his hand. 
He desires him to shake them again to embel- 
lish the operation, but, in so doing, takes care to 
bring the right handkerchief uppermost, and carefully 
fixes upon some simpleton to draw ; and if he finds 
that he is not likely to take the first that comes to his 
hand, he prevents him from drawing by fixing upon 
another, under pretence of his having a more sagacious 
look. When the handkerchief is torn and carefully 
folded up, it is put under a glass upon a table near a 
partition. On that part of the table on which it is 



30 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

deposited is a little trap, which opens and lets it fall 
into a drawer. The confederate, concealed behind the 
curtain, passes his hand within the table, opens the 
trap, and substitutes the second handkerchief instead 
of the first ; then shuts the trap, which fits so exactly 
the hole it closes, as to deceive the eyes of the most 
incredulous. If the performer be not possessed of 
such a table, (which is absolutely necessary for other 
feats as well as "this,) he must have the second hand- 
kerchief in his pocket, and by sleight-of-hand change 
it for the pieces, which must be instantaneously con- 
cealed. 



To Pass a Block of Wood from One Hat 
into Another. 

PERFORMED BY J. H. McCANN. 

Joseph H. McCann, the Western Magician, is a 
native of Baltimore. He commenced his profession 
at a very early age, and has been before the public for 
upwards of twenty years. He is a man of great versa- 
tility of talent, being at once a magician, equilibrist, 
musician, singer, and mimic. He can take-off actors, 
imitate Dr. Yalentine, perform various gymnastics, 
sing a good song, play on any instrument, tell a good 
story, play a good sleight-of-hand trick, and, to con- 
clude-, is a good, whole-souled, social fellow. lie con- 
fines himself to Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri J 

Procure a pasteboard box four inches square, open 
at the top, marked A ; have a second one made of tin, 
B, that will exactly fit in A, with the outside painted 
black, and ornamented to suit taste in white. Then 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 



31 



have a solid block of wood, 0, which will exactly fit 
figure, B, so that it may be slipped in or out at plea- 
sure. The block, C, must be painted the same as B. 



tf £ 






A#? 






i r 
















To Perform the Experiment — Have the block C 
covered with B ; show the company that it is a solid 
block of wood, A being the cover. Borrow two hats, 
— take one of them in your hand, and hold the inside 
a little toward you ; next take the box B between 
your finger, and press it so that the block C will be 
with it. Now put the block in the hat, pretending to 
try if the hat is large enough to hold it. In doing so, 
let your fingers loose, and the solid block C will fall 
from the box B into the hat. Then raise B, and it 
will appear the same as before. Be careful not to 
expose the open part. Now set the hat containing 
the block C upon the table ; place a plate on the hat, 
and the second hat crown-up upon the plate. Take 
B in your hand, and place on the crown of the hat. 
Then cover B with the pasteboard cover A. Say a 
few magical words. Then lift the pasteboard box 
jfrom the hat, pressing the fingers tightly, so as to 
retain B inside of A. The solid block C will appar- 
ently have disappeared, and, to the astonishment of 
all, will be found in the bottom hat, which you can 
show with the block to the company for examination. 



32 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

The Penetrative Shilling. 
PERFORMED BY OTIS EVERETT. 

Everett, the great Southern Magician, is a very 
popular man in North and South Carolina, Georgia, 
Alabama, and Florida ; in which States he usually 
exhibits. He is a very skillful necromancer, and has 
accumulated considerable wealth by his performances. 
He is a very shrewd business man, and knows how to 
preserve what he earns. He is now the owner of sev- 
eral successful canvas-shows travelling through the 
Southern country. 

Provide a round tin box, of the size of a large snuff- 
box, and likewise eight other boxes, which will easily 
fit into each other, and let the least of them be of a 
size to hold a shilling. Each of these boxes should 
shut with a hinge, and to the least of them there must 
be a small lock, fastened with a spring, but which can- 
not be opened without a key, and observe that all 
these boxes must shut so freely that they may all be 
closed at once. Place these boxes in each other, with 
their tops open, in your pocket ; then ask a person for 
a shilling, and desire him to mark it, that it may not 
be changed ; take this piece in one hand, and in 
the other have another of the same appearance, and, 
in putting your hand in your pocket, you slip the 
piece that is marked into the least box, and, shutting 
them all at once, you take them out ; then, showing 
the piece you have in your hand, and which the com- 
pany suppose to be the same that was marked, you 
pretend to make it pass through the box, but dexter- 
ously convey it away. You then present the box, for 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 33 

the spectators do not know yet that there are more 
than one, to any person in the company, who, when he 
opens it, finds another and another, till he comes to 
the last, but that he cannot open without the key, 
which you then give him ; and, retiring to a distant 
part of the room, you tell him to take out the shilling 
himself, and see if it be the one marked. This trick 
may be made more surprising by putting the key into 
the snuff-box of one of the company ; which you may 
do by asking for a pinch of snuff ; the key, being very 
small, will lie concealed among the snuff. When the 
person who opens the boxes asks for the key, tell him 
that one of his friends has it in his snuff-box. 



Scrap, or Blowing Book. 
PERFORMED BY POTTER. 

Potter, or "Old Black Potter," as he was called, 
has been dead nearly twenty years, though his name is 
to this day as familiar as a household word with some 
of the old New England residents. The New Eng- 
enders believe there was never a greater juggler ex- 
isted than Potter, and we venture to assert that he had 
no superior in his line. He was a very comical per- 
former, and done many of his tricks very handsomely. 
Though a black man, he was master of the "Black 
Art ,? and few white performers of his day could equal 
him in the execution of his surprising feats. Potter 
died about twenty years ago, at his handsome resi- 
dence, in Massachusetts. 

Take a book seven inches long, and about five inches 



34 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &0. 

broad, and let there be forty-nine leaves, that is seven 
times seven contained therein, so as you may cut upon 
the edges of each leaf six notches, each notch in depth 
of a quarter of an inch, with a gouge made for that 
purpose, and let them be one inch distant ; paint every 
thirteenth or fourteenth page, which is the end of every 
sixth leaf and beginning of every seventh, with like 
colours or pictures ; cut off with a pair of scissors every 
notch of the first leaf, leaving one inch of paper, which 
will remain half a quarter of an inch above that leaf ; 
leave another like inch in the second part of the second 
leaf, clipping away an inch of paper in the highest 
place above it, and all notches below the same, and or- 
derly to the third and fourth, and so there shall rest 
upon each leaf only one nick of paper above the rest, 
one high uncut, an inch of paper must answer to the 
first directly, so as when you have cut the first seven 
leaves in such a manner as described, you are to begin 
the self same order at the eighth leaf, descending the 
same manner to the cutting other seven leaves to twen- 
ty-one, until you have passed through every leaf all the 
thickness of your book. 



Dr. James Wyman' s Laughing-Gas. 

Dr. Wyman of New England, was an experienced 
Chemist, Alchemist and Natural Philosopher. He in- 
troduced the laughing-gas to the public in all the 
principal cities of the United States, and met with 
great success. Although bearing the same name as 
" Wyman the Wizard," he is not related to that gentle- 
man. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 35 

The above fanciful appellation" has been given to ni- 
trous oxide, from the agreeable sensations excited by 
inhaling it. In its pure state it destroys animal life, 
but loses this noxious quality when inhaled, because 
it becomes blended with the atmospheric air which it 
meets in the lungs. This gas is made by putting three 
or four drachms of nitrate of ammonia, in crystals, into 
a small glass retort, which being held over a spirit 
lamp, the crystals will melt, and the gas be dissolved. 
Having thus produced the gas, it is to be passed into 
a large bladder having a stop-cock ; and when you are 
desirous of exhibiting its effect, you cause the person 
who wishes to experience them to first exhale the at- 
mospheric air from the lungs, and then quickly placing 
the cock in his mouth, you turn it, and bid him inhale 
the gas. Immediately, a sense of extraordinary cheer- 
fulness, fanciful flights of imagination, an uncontrollable 
propensity to laughter, and a consciousness of being 
capable of great muscular exertion, supervene. It does 
not operate exactly in the same manner on all persons, 
but in most cases the sensations are agreeable, and 
have this important difference from those produced by 
wine or spirituous liquors — that they are not succeeded 
by any depression of mind. 



Wonderful Decapitation Feat ! 
AS PEEFOEMED BY THE CHINESE JUGGLEES. 

The Chinese Jugglers first appeared in California 
direct from China where they created an immense 
excitement by the performance of the decapitation and 



36 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &Q. 

impalement feats. Their feats of legerdemain however, 
were inferior to those performed by many of the En- 
glish and American Necromancers. Dr. Ghion, then 
in California, aware of their immense popularity, se- 
cured them for a tour through the States, commencing 
at New Orleans, and visited every city in succession 
from New Orleans to the confines of Maine, creating a 
perfect furore of excitement. This company soon dis- 
banded, their performances not admitting of repeti- 
tion, and the different members of the once popular 
band are now scattered around in different portions of 
our country — several of them now to be seen in New 
York, peddling cigars for a livelihood ! 

This is a curious performance if it be handled by a 
skilful hand. To show this feat of execution, you must 
cause a board, a cloth, and a platter to be purposely 
made, and in each of them to be made holes fit for a 
person's neck ; the board must be made of two planks, 
the longer and broader the better ; there must be left 
within half a yard of the end of each plank half a hole, 
so as both the planks being thrust together, there may 
remain two holes, like holes in a pair of stocks, there 
must be made likewise a hole in the cloth ; a platter 
also must be set directly over or upon one of them, 
having a hole in the middle thereof, of the like quan- 
tity, and also a piece cut off the same, as big as his 
neck, through which his head may be conveyed into the 
middle of the platter, and then sitting or kneeling under 
the board, let the head only remain upon the board- 
in the frame. Then to make the sight more striking, 
put a little brimstone into a chafing-dish of coals, sit- 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 3t 

ting it before the head of the boy, who must gasp two 
or three times, so as the smoke may enter his nostrils 
and mouth, which is not unwholesome, and the head 
presently will appear stark dead, if the boy act his 
countenance accordingly, and if a little blood be sprink- 
led on his face the sight will be stranger. This is 
commonly practised with a boy instructed for that 
purpose, who being familiar and conversant with com- 
pany, may be known as well by his face as by his ap- 
parel. In the other end of the table, where the like 
hole is made, another boy of the bigness of the known 
boy must be placed, having on his usual apparel : he 
must lean or lie upon the board, and must put his head 
under it through the side hole, so as the body shall 
seem to lie on the end of the board, and his head lie 
in a platter on the other end. There are other things 
which might be performed in this action, the more to 
astonish the beholders, which, because they require 
long descriptions, are here omitted ; as to put about 
his neck a little dough kneaded with bullock's blood, 
which being cold, will appear like dead flesh, and being 
pricked with a sharp round hollow quill, will bleed and 
seem very strange ; and many rules are to be observed 
herein, as to have the table-cloth so long and so wide 
as it may almost reach the ground. 



The Orange Tree Illusion. 
AS EXHIBITED BY MONS. ADONIS. 
Mons. Adonis, the French Wizard, first appeared 
in New Orleans, where he became very popular, es- 



33 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 



pecially with the French population : he afterwards 
started on a tour through the Northern States, but 
being unable to speak English sufficiently well to make 
his audience understand resorted to his native dialect, 
which was explained to the audience generally by an 
interpeter, who spoke English but little better than the 
Monsieur. The result was, he met with but poor suc- 
cess, and after repeated failures and heavy losses, packed 
up his apparatus and sailed back to France. Adonis was 
an excellent magician, a perfect master of his art, and 
had he learned the English language before he sailed 
for America, would have made one of the most success- 
ful tours ever made by a foreigner in this country. As 
it is, he has returned to his native land broken down 
in fortune, dispirited, and forced to manual labor ; for 
the support of his family. 




Make a box, A, B, C, of about six inches every way, 
in the middle of the top A, B, let there be a hole, 
through which is to pass the neck of the vessel E, that 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 39 

is a kind of hollow copper sphere, of four inches in 
diameter, and covered at its top and bottom, P and Gr, 
with two pieces of the same metal. To the part next 
to F, there is to be a tube H., about half an inch in 
diameter, through which is an aperture of a quarter of 
an inch ; this tube must also be pierced horizontally, 
by an opening of one-third of an inch at I, to admit 
a lock, the key of which must extend to the outside 
of the case. It should also have a small aperture 
of about one-tenth of an inch to let out the air that 
is to be compressed in the vessel E, as we shall now 
explain. 

To force the air into the hollow vessel there must be 
adjusted to one of its sides the copper syringe, N M, 
which has a little valve at M, and at the extremity N", 
so that by alternately thrusting in and drawing out the 
piston, the air may be strongly condensed in the 
vessel E. 

To the extremity of the tube H, there is fixed the 
little tree O, which is composed of four or five branches 
of copper that proceed from the stem 0, these branches 
are hollow that the air that enters the bottom may 
extend to the top. To these branches are adjusted 
twigs, made of brass wire, and the whole decorated 
with orange leaves made of parchment, and coloured 
to imitate nature. 

The ends of the branches are to dilate, so as to con- 
tain small pieces of fine kid, which are to take the 
figure of an orange when they are extended by the air 
drove through the branches. These oranges of kid 
must be contained within the extremity of the branches 
to which they are fastened by a silk thread, and there 



40 VENTPvILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

must be a space left at the ends of the branches to 
which is to be fixed the bud and flower of a blowing 
orange. The trunk of the tree must fit the tube H 
that none of the air may escape. The branches and 
kid that are to form the oranges must be accurately 
painted so as to favor the illusion. The whole to 
be covered by a glass case, to prevent any one touch- 
ing it. 

Previous to performing this trick, with a little stick, 
put the kid oranges within the end of each branch ; 
also the flowers of the blowing orange, that no part 
may appear. You then fill the vessel by means of the 
syringe with air. 

Matters being thus arranged introduce the box and 
tree covered with the glass shade, and show the com- 
pany the present state — that it bears neither flowers 
nor fruit — tell them it shall instantly produce both. 
You then turn the cock, when the flowers and buds 
will immediately appear, and will be succeeded by the 
fruit. 



THE 



COMPLETE HISTORY AND EXPOSURE 



OF 



YENTRILOQUISM. 



Containing a full account of the wonderful powers of the 
human voice ; an epitome of ail the most distinguished 
ventriloquist s in the world ; the arts practiced to obtain 
ventriloquial power ; the different theories of celebrated 
men, in reference to the faculty of sound in the human 
voice ; a detailed explanation of the easiest mode of ac- 
quiring the faculty of throwing the voice ; the mechanical 
contrivances of ingenious and talented persons ; how to 
become a practical ventriloquist ; dialogues for public 
exhibition ; also a variety of experiments, and ideas 
never before published, concerning the startling and 
amusing faculties possessed by a ventriloquist. The 
whole compiled and arranged from Professor Wyman's 
extensive library of works on the arts and sciences; and 
from private manuscripts of celebrated ventriloquists; 
also, Prof, Wyman's mode of performing ventriloquism, 



BY E. MASON, JR. 



PHILADELPHIA 
1860. 



"And thou shalt be brought down, and shall speak 
out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low 
out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of 

ONE THAT HATH A FAMILIAR SPIRIT, OUT OF THE 
GROUND, AND THY SPEECH SHALT WHISPER OUT OF 

the dust." — Isaiahy xxix. 4. 



7f- 



>%*?Arx -Jf/PP t fjfA 



/ 




7 ^ / 

Ventriloquism. 



^Vu^ 



**&&*: 



The practitioner of this occult art, is well known to 
have a power of modifying his voice in such a manner, 
as to imitate the voices of different persons conversing 
at a considerable distance from each other, and in very 
different tones. And hence the first impression which 
this ingenious trick or exhibition produced on the 
world, was that of the artist's possessing a double or 
triple Larynx ; the additional larynxes being sup- 
posed to be seated still deeper in the chest than the 
lowermost of the two that belong to birds ; whence 
indeed the name of ventriloquism or belly-speaking. 

Mr. Gough has attempted in the memoirs of the 
Manchester Society, to resolve the whole into the phe- 
nomena of echoes ; the ventriloquist being conceived 
by him on all occasions to confine himself to a room 
well disposed for echoes in various parts of it, and 
merely to produce false voices by directing his natural 
voice in a straight line towards such echoing parts 
instead of in a straight line towards the audience ; who 
upon this view of the subject, are supposed to be 
artfully placed on one or both sides of the ventriloquist. 
It is sufficient to observe, in opposition to this conjec- 
ture, that it does not account for the perfect quiescence 
of the mouth and cheeks of the performer while em- 
ploying his feigned voices ; and that an adept in the 



44 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &&\ . \ 

art, is wholly indifferent to the room jn which he prac- 
tices, and will allow another person to clioose a room 
for him. 

Mr. Bicherand, one of the most popular French physi- 
ologists of the day, who has examined the vocal organs 
of several ventriloquists, observes, as the results of his 
investigation, that although there is little or no motion 
in the cheeks during the act of speaking, there is con- 
siderable demand and expenditure of air ; the ventrilo- 
quist always inhaling deeply before he commences his 
deception,-passing a part of the air thus inhaled through 
his nostrils, and being able to continue his various 
voices as long as the inspired air may last, or till he 
has inhaled a fresh supply. 

This view of the subject induced Mr. Bicherand to 
relinquish the old hypothesis of a kind of vocal organ 
being seated in the stomach, to which we have already 
adverted, and which he had formerly embraced ; though 
it does not appear that he has very distinctly adopted 
any other in its stead; "At first/ 7 says he, "I had 
conjectured that a great part of the air expelled by 
expiration did not pass out by the mouth and nostrils, 
but was swallowed and carried into the stomach ; and 
being reflected in some part of the digestive canal, 
gives rise to a real echo ; but after having more atten- 
tively, observed this curious phenomenon, I was soon 
convinced that the name of ventriloquism is by no 
means applicable ; since the whole of its mechanism 
consists in a slow, gradual expiration ; in which the 
artist either influences at his will the surrounding 
muscles of the chest, or keeps down the epiglottis by 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 45 

the base of the tongue, the point of which is not pro- 
tracted beyond the. arch of the teeth. " 

M. de la Chapelle, without offering any particular 
explanation of this curious art, published in 1712, an 
ingenious work, in which he attempted to prove that 
ventriloquism is of a very ancient date ; and that it 
formed the mode by which the responses of many of 
oracles of former times were delivered by the priests 
and priestesses, to the credulous multitudes around 
them. And although this able writer has not fully 
succeeded in establishing his point, it must be allowed 
by every one, that no art, while it continued occult, 
would better answer the purpose of such sort of im- 
position ; for an adept in the science is capable of 
modulating and inflecting his voice with so nice a 
dexterity, as not only to imitate with equal accuracy, 
the cries of dogs, cats, infants, and all persons in dis- 
tress, together with every modification of articulate 
speech, but apparently to throw the mimic sound from 
whatever quarter he chooses ; from the ceiling or roof 
of a house, the corner of the room, the mouths, the 
stomachs, or pockets of any of the company present, 
from their hands or feet, from beneath a hat or glass, 
or from a wooden doll. A humorous artist of this 
kind is said to have amused himself some years ago, by 
frequenting the fish market at Edinburgh, and making 
a fish speak, and give its vender the lie in her own 
gross preaching, upon her affirming that it was fresh, 
and caught in the morning ; the fish quaintly replying 
as often as she so asserted that it had been dead for a 
week, and that she knew it. 

It is certain that hitherto, no satisfactory explanation 



46 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 

has been offered of this singular phenomenon ; and I 
shall, therefore, take leave to suggest that it is, pos- 
sibly, of a much simpler character than has usually 
been apprehended ; that the entire range of its imita- 
tive power is confined to the larynx alone, and that the 
art itself consists in a close attention to the almost 
infinite variety of tones, articulations, and inflections 
the larynx is capable of producing in its own region, 
when long and dexterously practised upon, and a 
skilful modification of these effects into mimic speech, 
passed for the most part, and whenever necessary, 
through the cavity of the nostrils, instead of through 
the mouth. The parrot in imitating human language, 
employs the larynx and nothing else ; as does the 
mocking-bird, the most perfect ventriloquist in nature 
in imitating cries and imitations of all kinds. 

Every bird keeper knows that it is not necessary for 
birds to open their bills in the act of singing, except 
for the purpose of uttering the note already formed in 
the larynx, that would otherwise have to pass through 
the nostrils, which, in birds, prove a much less conveni- 
ent passage for the sound than in man ; and of so little 
use is the tongue towards the formation of sound, 
that instances are not wanting of birds that have con- 
tinued their song after they have lost the entire tongue 
by accident or disease. It is said that the ventriloquist, 
on many occasions does not use the tongue, which is 
false ; the tongue is equally necessary to inarticulate 
and to articulate language. But all musical sounds 
may be produced without the aid of the tongue, the 
larynx is the sole organ. All natural cries, even though 
modulated by music, are from the throat and larynx 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 47 

or knot of the throat, with little or no operation of 
the organs of the mouth. But of the twenty-four 
articulate sounds which the alphabet comprises, there 
are but few in which the tongue takes a distinct lead, 
as in the Z, d, t, &c, though it is auxiliary to several 
others ; but the guttural or polatine, g, h y k y q, ; the 
nasal, as m, and n, ; the labial, as b, p, f, v, and most 
of the dental, together with all the vowels, are but 
little indebted to its assistance. I see no reason why 
the ventriloquist should not use his tongue : it is not 
seen by the audience when exercising his art ; certain 
it is the ventriloquist when holding a conversation 
with supposed personages does not, or ought not to 
use the lips or let the muscles of the face be seen to 
move, as the deception would not be complete ; the 
imagination of the audience could not be kept in play 
to fancy the voice from the quarter the ventriloquist 
wishes it to appear. 

When speaking in a ventriloquial voice I compress 
the teeth firm together which contracts the muscles of 
the face and keeps them from vibrating with the voice, 
this is all the ventriloquist wants, viz : When conver- 
sing with supposed personages, during their answers to 
keep the muscles of the face and lips perfectly still, 
and to let the conversation be so arranged that the 
letters b, f, m, p, v, are seldom if ever used ; but 
when they are used, I give my face an impassive 
expression ; or one very foreign to the verbal expression 
to which I am giving utterance. Anatomists mention 
two instances of persons speaking without a tongue. 
In one case the organ, was originally wanting, but its 
place was supplied by a small tubercle and the rivala 



48 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

was perfect. In the other the tongue was destroyed 
by disease.* 

The tongue is a natural and common organ in the 
functions of the voice, &c, and is absolutely necessary 
in all articulate tones. 

The term ventriloquist, and other words of similar 
import were employed, in the infancy of the science, 
but it is evident that we ought not to admit them now 
in scientific language : for the art of the ventriloquist 
does not, (according to the derivation of the word,) 
consists in speaking in the belly, but when stifled sounds 
are formed in the larynx, and articulated without moving 
the muscles of the face, he gives them strength by a 
powerful action of the abdominal muscles. Hence he 
speaks by means of his belly, although the throat is 
the real source from which the sounds proceed. This 
art does not depend on a particular structure or organ- 
ization of the nerves and muscles of the throat, but 
may be acquired by many, to a certain extent, while 
others do not, nor can ever possess ; in the same 
manner as it makes some capable of singing, whilst 
others are ever incapacitated. But there is a great 
degree of obscure action about the parts composing 
the vocal tube,f which none but the practitioner with 

* Good's Book of Nature, page 260. 

f Well may the deceptions that are practised with the 
human voice take place when fifteen of different muscles are 
attached to the cartilages, or to the osylioides, and acting 
as agents, antagonists, or directors, are constantly employed 
in keeping the cartilages steady, in regulating their situation, 
and moving them as occasion requires, — upward and down- 
ward, backward and forward and in every intermediate 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 49 

immense practice and study is able to comprehend and 

put in force, especially when regulating the distant 

voice 'to make it appear nearer, and which voice cannot 

be produced by the action of the glottis alone. The 

glottis in the production of acute sounds is contracted 

but instead of descending in the case of acute tones 

and in rising in that of the grave, the reverse is the 

fact. Thus the art of the ventriloquist consists, 

First, In modifying his voice according to the 

different variations, or changes, the supposed person 

is thought to occupy. 

Second, In keeping the imagination of his auditors 

in play, and attracting their attention with a degree of 

finesse only to be acquired by repeated trials, and 

intense practise and study. 

direction, according to the course of the muscular fibres, or 
in the diagonal between different fibres. These muscles 
independently of the former, are susceptible of upwards of 
1.073,841,800 different combinations ; and when they co- 
operate with the seven pairs of larynx, of 17.592,186,044,415; 
exclusive of the changes w T hich must arise from the different 
degrees of force, velocity, &c, with which they may be 
brought into action. But these muscles are not the whole 
that co-operate with the larynx, in the production of the 
voice. The diaphragm the abdominal muscles, the inter- 
costals, and all that directly or indirectly act on the air or 
on the parts to which the muscles of the glottis or oshyoides 
are attached, — in short all the muscles that recover nerves 
from the respiratory system contribute their share. The 
numerical estimate would consequently, require to be largely 
augmented. Such calculations are of course, only approxi- 
mate, but they show the inconceivable variety of movement 
of which the vocal apparatus is directly or indirtctiy suscep- 
tible. 



50 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

T/iird, In keeping the muscles of the face &c, in a 
state of composure, during the answer of the supposed 
party. 

FI^OM GOOD'S BOOK OF NATURE. 

At the root of the tongue lies a minute semi-lunar 
shaped bone, which from its resemblance to the Greek 
letter v, or upsilon, is called the hyoicl or u-likebone ; 
and immediately from this bone arises a long cartila- 
ginous tube, which extends to the lungs, and conveys 
the air backward and forward in the process of respira- 
tion. This tube is denominated the trachaea or wind- 
pipe ; and the upper part of it, or that immediately 
connected with the hyoid-bone, the larynx : and it is 
this upper part or larynx alone that constitutes the 
seat of the voice. 

The tube of the larynx, short as it is, is formed of 
five distinct cartilages ; the largest and apparently, 
though not really, lowermost of which, produces that 
acute projection or knot in the anterior part of the 
neck, and especially in the neck of the males, of which 
every one must be sensible. This is not a complete 
ring, but is open behind : the open space being filled 
up, in order to make a complete ring, with other two 
cartilages of a smaller size and power ; and what to- 
gether form the glottis, as it is called, or aperture out 
of the mouth into the larynx. The fourth cartilage 
lies immediately over this aperture, and closes in the 
act of swallowing, so as to direct the food to the 
esophagus, another opening immediately behind it, 
which leads to the stomach. These four cartilages are 
supported by a fifth, which constitutes their basis ; and 
is narrow before, and broad behind, and has some re- 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 51 

semblance to a seal-ring. The larynx is contracted 
and dilated in a variety of ways by the antagonist 
power of different muscles, and the elasticity of its 
cartilaginous coats ; and is covered internally with a 
very sensbile, vascular, and mucous membrane which 
is a continuation of the membrane of the mouth. The 
organ of the voice then is the larynx, its muscles, and 
appendages : and the voice itself is the sound of the 
air propelled through and striking against the sides of 
its glottis ; or opening into the mouth. The shrillness 
or roughness of the voice depends on the internal 
diameter of the glottis, its elasticity, mobility, and 
lubricity, and the force with which the air is protruded. 
Speech is the modification of the voice into distinct 
articulations, in the locality of the glottis itself, or in 
that of the mouth, or of the nostrils. Those animals 
only that possess lungs possess a larynx, and hence 
none but the first three classes in the Linnaaan system, 
consisting of mammals, birds and amphibials. Even 
among these however, some gender or species are 
entirely dumb, as the rnyrmecophaga or ant-eater, the 
manis or pomgolin, and the cetaceous tribes, together 
with the tortoise, lizards, and serpents ; while others 
lose their voice in particular regions ; as the dog is 
said to do in some parts of America ; and quails and 
frogs in various districts of Siberia. 

It is from the greater or less degree of perfection 
with which the larynx is formed in the different classes 
of animals that possess it, that the voice is rendered 
more or less perfect ; and it is by an introduction of 
superadded membranes, or muscles, into its general 
structure, or a variation in the shape, position, or 



52 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 

elasticity of those that are common to it, that quadru- 
peds and other animals are capable of making those 
peculiar sounds, by which their different kinds, are 
respectively characterized, and are able to neigh, bray, 
bark or roar ; to pur as the cat and tiger kind, to bleat 
as the sheep, or to croak as the frog. 

The larynx of the bird class is of a very peculiar 
form, and admirably adapted to that sweet and varied 
music with which w r e are so often delighted in the 
woodlands. In reality the whole extent of the trachea 
or windpipe in birds may be regarded as one vocal 
apparatus ; for the larynx is divided into two sections, 
or may rather, perhaps, be considered as two distinct 
organs ; the more complicated, or that in which the 
parts are more numerous and elaborate, being placed 
at the bottom of the trachea, when it divides into two 
branches, one for each of the lungs : and the simpler, 
or that in which the parts are fewer, and consist of 
those not included in the former, occupying its usual 
situation at the uper end of the trachea, which however, 
is without an epiglottis ; the food and other substances 
being incapable of entering the aperture of the glottis 
from another contrivance. The lungs, trachea, and 
larynx of birds, therefore, may be regarded as forming 
a complete natural bagpipe ; in which the lungs con- 
stitute the pouch and supply the wind ; the trachea 
itself the pipe ; the inferior glottis the head or mouth 
piece, which produces the simple sound ; and the su- 
perior glottis the finger-holes, which modify the simple 
sound into an infinite variety of distinct notes, and at 
the same time give them utterance. 

Among the bird-tribes there are some possessed of 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 53 

powers of voice so singular, independently of that of 
their own natural music, that I cannot consent to pass 
them over in total silence. The note of the pipra 
musica, or tuneful manakin, is not on]y intrinsically 
sweet, but forms a' complete octave ; one note succeed- 
ing another in ascending and measured intervals through 
the whole range of its diapason. This bird is an in- 
habitant of St. Domingo, of a black tint, with a blue 
crown and yellow front and hump ; about four inches 
long, very shy, and dexterous in eluding the vigilance 
of such as attempt to take it. The imitative power of 
several species of the corous and psittacus kinds is well 
known ; the jay, and parrot, are those most commonly 
taught, and the far-famed parrot of the late Colonel 
O 'Kelly which could repeat twenty of our most popular 
songs, and sing them to their proper tunes, has been, 
I suppose, seen and heard by many. 

The Bullfinch (Coxia Pyrrhula) however, has a 
better voice, as well as a more correct taste in imitating 
musical tones, and the bird breeders of Germany find 
a lucrative employment in training multitudes of this 
family for a foreign market. There is no species, 
however, so much entitled to notice on account of its 
voice, as the Polyglottis, or Mocking-Bird of South 
Carolina. This is an individual of the Thrush kind ; its 
own natural note is delightfully musical and solemn ; 
but beyond this it possesses an instinctive talent of 
imitating the note of every other kind of singing bird, 
and even the voice of every bird of prey so exactly, as 
to deceive the very kind it attempts to mock. It is 
moreover playful enough to find amusement in the de- 
ception ; and takes a pleasure in decoying smaller 



54 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

birds near it by imitating their notes, when it frightens 
them almost to death, or drives them away with all 
speed, by pouring upon them the screams of such 
birds of prey as they dread. 

Now it is clear that the imitative, like the natural 
voice, has its seat in the cartilages and other moveable 
powers that form the Larynx : for the great body of 
the trachea only gives measure to the sound, and ren- 
ders it more or less copious in proportion to its volume. 
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that a similar 
sort of imitative power should be sometimes cultivated 
with success in the human larynx ; and that we should 
occasionally meet with persons, who from long and dex- 
terous practice, should be able to imitate the notes of 
almost all the singing birds of the woods, or the sounds 
of other animals, or even to personate the different 
voices of orators and other public speakers. 

Ventriloquism is the power of imitating voices, 
sounds, or noises, as if they were perfectly extraneous, 
and not originating in the utterer, but in some other 
person, and in places at various distances, and even in 
several directions. A skillful ventriloquist produces 
these effects without any apparent movement of his 
jaws, lips, or features. Various opinions have been 
advanced by physiologists with regard to the manner 
of producing such an effect. The most commonly 
recorded opinion refers to the power of articulation 
during inspiration. M. Majendia regards it as a mere 
modification of the ordinary voice, so as to imitate the 
sounds which the voice suffers from distance ; and 
lately Miiller contends that, it "consists in inspiring 
deeply, so as to protrude forward the abdominal viscera 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC. 55 

by the distent of the diaphragm, and then speaking 
while the expiration is performed very slowly through 
a very narrow glottis by means of the sides of the chest 
alone, the diaphragm maintaining its depressed po- 
sition. Sounds may be thus uttered which resemble 
the voice of a person calling from a distance." This 
is a very probable explanation, especially as the imagi- 
nation influences the judgment when we direct the ear 
to the place whence the ventriloquist pretends that the 

sound proceeds : a part of the trick which is always 
taken advantage of by the ventriloquist. 

The art of ventriloquism was known at a very early 
period and was generally regarded by the ignorant as 
a supernatural gift, associated with sorcery. It was 
one of the evidences against a person accused of sorcery, 
and of course had a share in producing their condem- 
nation. In the seventeenth century a woman named 
Cecele astonished the inhabitants of Lisbon with her 
powers as a ventriloquist ; she was convicted of being 
a sorceress, and possessed of a demon ; and, although 
she was not burned, yet, she was transported to the 
island of St. Thomas, where she died. 

The influence of ventriloquism over the human race 
is .not, therefore, wonderful, w T hen we preceive that it 
is not merely confined to the imitation of sounds and 
voices on earth, but that he has, in a certain degree, 
the supernatural at command. The power which it 
must have given to the pagan priesthood, in addition 
to their other deceptions may be imagined. 



56 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 

ILLUSION OF SOUND. 

The ear is the most fertile source of our illusions 
and the ancient magicians seem to have been very 
successful in turning to their purposes the doctrines 
of sound. In the labyrinth of Egypt, which contained 
twelve places and 1500 subterraneous apartments, the 
gods were made to speak in a voice of thunder ; and 
Pliny, in whose time this singular structure existed, 
informs us that some of the palaces were so constructed 
that their doors could not be opened without permitting 
peals of thunder from being heard in the interior. 
When Darius Hystaspes ascended the throne, and al- 
lowed his subjects to prostrate themselves before him 
as a god, of the divinity of his character was impressed 
upon his worshippers by the bursts of thunder and 
flashes of lightning which accompanied their devotion. 
History has of course, not informed us how these effects 
were produced ; but it is probable, that in the subterra- 
neous and vaulted apartments of the Egyptian labyrinth, 
the reverberated sounds arising from the mere opening 
and shutting of the doors themselves afforded a suf- 
ficient imitation of ordinary thunder. In the palace 
of the Persian King, however, a more artificial imitation 
is likely to be employed, and it is not improbable that 
the method used in our modern theatres was known to 
the ancients. A thin sheet of iron, three or four feet 
long, such as that used for German stoves, is held by 
one corner between the finger and the thumb, and 
allowed to hang freely by its own weight. The hand 
is then moved or shaken horizontally, so as to agitate 
the corner in a direction at right angles to the surface 
of the sheet. By this simple process a great variety 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 57 

of sounds, will be produced, varying from the deep 
growl of distant thunder to those loud and explosive 
bursts which rattle in quick succession from clouds 
immediately over our heads. The operator soon ac- 
quires great power over this instrument, so as to be 
able to produce from it any intensity and character of 
sound that may be required. The same effect may be 
produced by sheets of tin-plate, and by thin plates of 
mica ; but on account of their small size, the sound is 
shorter and more acute. In modern exhibitions an 
admirable imitation of lightning is produced by throw- 
ing the powder of rosin, or the dust of lycopodium, 
through a flame, and the rattling showers of rain which 
accompany these meteors are well imitated by a well 
regulated shower of peas. 

The principal pieces of acoustic mechanism used by 
the ancients wero speaking or singing heads, which 
were constructed for the purpose of representing the 
gods, or of uttering oracular responses. Among these, 
the speaking head of Orpheus, which uttered its re- 
sponses at Lesbos, is one of the most famous. It was 
celebrated, not only throughout Greece, but even in 
Persia, and it had the credit of predicting, in the 
equivocal language of the heathen oracles, the bloody 
death which terminated the expiation of Cyrus the 
Great in Scythia. Odin, the mighty magician of the 
North, who imported into Scandinavia the magical 
arts of the East, possessed a speaking head, said to be 
that of the sage Minos, which he had encased in 
gold, and which uttered responses that had all the 
authority of a divine revelation. 

The celebrated mechanic Gerbert ; who filled the 



53 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C, 

papal chair A. D. 1000, under the name of Sylvester 
II. constructed a speaking head of brass. Albertus 
Magmus is said to have executed a head in the thir- 
teenth century, which not only moved but spoke. It 
was made of earthenware, and Thomas Aquinas is 
said to have been so terrified when he saw it, that he 
broke it in pieces, upon which the mechanist exclaimed, 
"There goes the labor of thirty years. " 

It has been supposed by some authors, that in the 
ancient speaking machines the deception is effected by 
means of ventriloquism, the voice issuing from the 
juggler himself; but it is more probable that the sound 
was conveyed by pipes from a person in another apart- 
ment to the mouth of the figure. Lucian, indeed, 
expressly informs us, that the impostor Alexander 
made his figure of JEsculapius speak by transmitting 
his voice through the gullet of a crane to the mouth 
of his statue ; and that this method was general ap- 
pears from a passage in Theodoretus, who assures 
us, that in the fourth century, when Bishop Theophilus 
broke to pieces the statues at Alexandria, he found 
some which were hollow, and which were so placed 
against a wall that the priest could conceal himself 
behind them, and addresses the ignorant spectators 
through their mouths. 

Even in modern times, speaking machines have been 
constructed on this principle. The figure is frequently 
a mere head placed upon a hollow pedestal, which, in 
order to promote the deception, contains a pair of 
bellows, a sounding board, a cylinder and pipes sup- 
posed to represent the organs of speech. In other 
cases, these are dispensed with, and a simple wooden 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &0. 59 

head utters its sounds through a speaking trumpet. 
At the court of Charles II. this deception was exhibited 
with great effect by one Thomas Irson, an Englishman, 
and when the astonishment had become general, a 
popish priest was discovered by one of the pages in an 
adjoining apartment. The questions had been pro- 
posed to the wooden figure by whispering into its ear, 
and this learned personage had answered them all with 
great ability, by speaking through a pipe in the same 
language in which the questions were proposed. 

Although the performances of speaking heads were 
effected by the method now described, yet there is 
reason to think that the ventriloquist sometimes pre- 
sided at the exhibition and deceived the audience by 
his extraordinary powers of illusion. There is no 
species of deception more irresistable in its effects, than 
that which arises from the uncertainty with which we 
judge of the direction and distance of sounds. Every 
person must have noticed how a sound in their own 
ears is often mistaking for some loud noise moderated 
by the distance from which it is supposed to come ; 
and the sportsman must have frequently been surprised 
at the existence of musical sounds humming remotely 
in the extended heath, when it was only the wind 
sounding in the barrel of his gun. The great pro- 
portion of apparitions that haunt old castles and apart- 
ments associated with death exist only in the sounds 
which accompany them. The imagination even ox" the 
boldest inmate of a place hallowed by superstition will 
transfer some trifling sound near his own person to a 
direction and to a distance very different from the 
truth, and the sound, which otherwise might have no 



60 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

peculiar complexion, will deceive another character 
from its new locality. Spurning the idea of a super- 
natural origin, he determines to unmask the sceptre, 
and grapple with it in its den. All the inmates of the 
house are found to be asleep, even the quadrupeds are 
in their lair ; there is not a breath of wind to ruffle the 
lake that reflects through the casements the reclining 
crescent of the night ; and the massive walls in which 
he is enclosed forbid the idea that he has been disturbed 
by the warping of paneling or the bending of partitions. 
His search is vain : and he remains master of his own 
secret till he has another opportunity of investigation. 
The same sound again disturbs him, and, modified 
probably by his own position at the time, it may per- 
haps appear to come in a direction slightly different 
from the last. His searches are resumed, and he is 
again disappointed. If this incident should recur night 
after night with the same result ; if the sound should 
appear to depend upon his own motions, or be any how 
associated with himself, with his present feelings or 
with his past , history, his personal courage will give 
way, a superstitious dread, at which he himself perhaps 
laughs, will seize his mind, and he would rather believo 
that the sounds have a supernatural origin than that 
they could continue to issue from a spot where he 
knows there is no natural cause for their production. 

I have had occasion to have personal knowledge of 
a case much stronger than that which has now been 
put. A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, 
and living in a house free from any gloomy associations, 
heard night after night in his bedroom a singular noise, 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 61 

unlike any ordinary sound to which he was accustomed. 
He had slept in the same room for years without 
hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change 
of circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room, 
but after the strictest examination, no cause could be 
found for it. It occurred only once in the night : it 
was heard almost every night ; with few interruptions. 
It was over in an instant, and never took place till after 
the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always dis- 
tinctly heard by his companion, to whose time of going 
to bed it had no relation. It depended upon the gentle- 
man alone, and it followed him into another apartment 
with another bed, on the opposite side of the house. 
Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most 
diligent but fruitless search into its cause. The con- 
sideration that the sound had a special reference to 
him alone operated upon his imagination, and he did 
not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the 
mysterious sound produced a superstitious feeling at 
the moment. Many months afterwards it was found 
that the sound arose from the partial opening of the 
door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the 
gentleman's head, and which had been taken into the 
other apartment. This wardrobe was almost always 
opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a 
little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a 
sort of dull sound resembling the note of a drum. As 
the door had only started half an inch out of its place, 
its change of place never attracted attention. The 
sound indeed, seemed to come in a different direction, 
and from a greater distance. 



62 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

The uncertainty with respect to the direction of 
sound is the foundation of the art of ventriloquism. 
If we place ten men in a row at such a distance from 
us that they are included in the angle within which we 
cannot judge of the direction of sound, and if in a calm 
day each of them speaks in succession, we shall not be 
able with clos-ed eyes to determine from which of the 
ten men any of the sounds proceeds, and we shall be 
incapable of perceiving that there is any difference in 
the direction of the sounds emitted by the two outer- 
most. If a man and a child are placed within the same 
angle, and if the man speaks with the accent of a child 
without any corresponding motion in his mouth or 
face, we shall necessarily believe that the voice comes 
from the child : nay, if the child is so distant from the 
man that the voice actually appears to us to come from 
the man, we will still continue in belief that the child 
is the speaker; and the conviction would acquire 
additional strength if the child favored the deception 
by accommodating its features and gestures to the 
words spoken by the man. So powerful, indeed, is 
the influence of this deception, that if a jackass placed 
near the man were to open its mouth, and shake its 
head responsive to the words uttered by his neighbor, 
we would rather believe that the ass spoke than that 
the sounds proceeded from a person whose mouth was 
shut, and the muscles of whose face were in perfect 
repose. If our imagination were even directed to a 
marble statue or a lump of inanimate matter, as the 
source from which we were to expect the sounds to 
issue, we would still be deceived, and would refer the 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 63 

sounds even to these lifeless objects. The illusion 
would be greatly promoted if the voice were totally- 
different in its tone and character from that of the man 
from whom it really comes ; and if he occasionally 
spoke in his own full and measured voice, the belief 
will be irresistible that the assumed voice proceeds from 
the quadruped or from the inanimate object. 

When the sounds which are required to proceed from 
any given object are such as they are actually calcula- 
ted to yield, the process of deception is extremely easy, 
and it may be successfully executed even if the angle 
between the real and the supposed directions of the 
sound is much greater than the angle of uncertainty. 
Mr. Dugald Stewart has stated some cases in which 
deceptions of this kind were very perfect. He men- 
tions his having seen a person who, by counterfeiting 
the gesticulations of a performer on the violin, while 
he imitated the music by his voice, riveted the eyes of 
his audience on the instrument, though every sound 
they heard was produced from his own mouth. The late 
Savile Carey, who imitated the whistling of the wind 
through a narrow chink, told Mr. Stewart that he had 
frequently practised this deception in the corner of a 
coffee-house, and that he seldom failed to see some of 
the company rise to examine the tightness of the -win- 
dows, while others, more intent on their newspapers, 
contented themselves with putting on their hats and 
buttoning their coats. Mr. Stewart likewise mentions 
an exhibition formerly common in some of the con- 
tinental theatres, where a performer on the stage dis- 
played the dumb show of singing with his lips and eyes 
and gestures, while another person unseen supplied the 



64 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

music with his voice. The deception in this case he 
found to be at first so complete as to impose upon the 
nicest ear and the quickest eye ; but in the progress of 
the entertainment, he became distinctly sensible of the 
imposition, and sometimes wondered that it should 
have misled him for a moment. In this case there can 
be no doubt that the deception was at first the work of 
the imagination; and was not sustained by the acoustic 
principle. The real and the mock singer were too 
distant, and when the influence of the imagination 
subsided, the true direction of the sound was discovered. 
This detection of the imposture, however, may have 
arisen from another cause. If the mock singer hap- 
pened to change the position of his head, while the 
real singer made no corresponding change in his voice, 
the attentive spectator would at once notice this in- 
congruity, and discover the imposition. 

In many of the feats of ventriloquism the performer 
contrives, under some pretence or other, to conceal his 
face, but ventriloquists of great distinction, such as M. 
Alexandre^ practice their art without any such con- 
cealment. 

Ventriloquism loses its distinctive character if its 
imitations are not performed by a voice from the belly. 
The voice, indeed, does not actually come from that 
region, but when the ventriloquist utters sounds from 
the larynx without moving the muscles of his face, he 
gives them strength by a powerful action of the abdo- 
minal muscles. Hence he speaks by means of his belly, 
although the throat is the real source from which the 
sounds proceed. Mr. Dugald Stewart has doubted the 
fact that ventriloquists possess the power of fetching a 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 65 

voice from within : he cannot conceive what aid could 
be derived from such an extraordinary power ; and he 
considers that the imagination, when seconded by such 
powers of imitation as some mimics possess, is quite 
sufficient to account for all the phenomena of ventrilo- 
quism which he has heard. The opinion, however, is 
strongly opposed bj the remark made to Mr. Stewart 
himself by a ventriloquist, " that his art would be per- 
fect if it were possible only to speak distinctly, without 
any movement of the lips at all." But, independent of 
this admission, it is a matter of absolute certainty that 
this internal power is exercised by the true ventriloquist. 
In the account which the Abbe Chapelle has given of 
the performances of M. St. Gille and Louis Brabant, 
he distinctly states that M. St. Gille appeared to be 
absolutely mute while he was exercising his art, and 
that no change in his countenance could be discovered.* 
He affirms also that the countenance of Louis Brabant 
exhibited no chan,ge, and that his lips were close and 
inactive. M. Richerand, who attentively watched the 
performances of M. Fitz-James, assures us that during 
his exhibition there was a distension in the epigastric 
region, and that he could not long continue the exertion 
without fatigue. 

The influence over the human mind which the ven- 
triloquist derives from the skilful practice of his art, is 
greater than that which is exercised by any other spe- 
cies of conjurer. The ordinary magician requires his 
theatre, his accomplices, and the instruments of his art, 
and he enjoys but a local sovereignty within the pre- 
cincts of his own magic circle. The ventriloquist, on 

* Edinburgh Journal of Science, No. xviii. p. 254. 
E 



66 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

the contrary, Las the supernatural always at his com- 
mand. In the open fields, as well as in the crowded 
city — in the private apartment, as well as in the public 
hall, he can summon up innumerable spirits ; and though 
the persons of his fictitious dialogue are not visible to 
the eye, yet they are as unequivocally present to the 
imagination of his auditors as if they had been shad- 
owed forth in the silence of a spectral form. In order 
to convey some idea of the influence of this illusion, I 
shall mention a few well authenticated cases of successful 
ventriloquism. 

M. St. Grille, a grocer of St. Germain en Laye, whose 
performances have been recorded by the Abbe de la 
Chapelle, had occasion to shelter himself from a storm 
in a neighboring convent, where the monks were in 
deep mourning for a much-esteemed member of their 
community who had been recently buried. While 
lamenting over the tomb of their deceased brother the 
slight honors which had been paid to his memory, a 
voice was suddenly heard to issue from the roof of the 
choir bewailing the condition of the deceased in purga- 
tory, and reproving the brotherhood for their want of 
zeal. The tidings of this supernatural event brought 
the whole brotherhood to the church. The voice from 
above repeated its lamentations and reproaches, and 
the whole convent fell upon their faces, and vowed to 
make a reparation of the error. They accordingly 
chaunted in full choir a de profundis, during the 
intervals of which the spirit of the departed monk 
expressed his satisfaction at their pious exercises. The 
prior afterward inveighed against modern skepticism 
on the subject of apparitions, and M. St. Gille had great 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 67 

difficulty in convincing the fraternity that the whole 
was a deception. 

On another occasion, a commission of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, attended by several 
persons of the highest rank, met at St. Germain en 
Laye to witness the performances of M. St. Gille. The 
real object of this meeting was purposely withheld from 
a lady of the party, who was informed that an serial 
spirit had lately established itself in the neighborhood, 
and that the object of the assembly was to investigate 
the matter. When the party had sat down to dinner 
in the open air, the spirit addressed the lady in a voice 
which seemed to come from above their heads, from 
the surface of the ground at a great distance, or from 
a considerable depth under her feet. Having been 
thus addressed at intervals during two hours, the lady 
was firmly convinced of the existence of the spirit, and 
could with difficulty be undeceived. 

Another ventriloquist, Louis Brabant, who had been 
valet-de-charnbre to Francis I., turned his powers to a 
more profitable account. Having fallen in love with a 
rich and beautiful heiress, he was rejected by her 
parents as an unsuitable match for their daughter. 
On the death of her father, Louis paid a visit to the 
widow, and he had no sooner entered the house than 
she heard the voice of her deceased husband addressing 
her from above : " Give my daughter in marriage to 
Louis Brabant, who is a man of large fortune and 
excellent character. I endure the inexpressible tor- 
ments of purgatory for having refused her to him. 
Obey this admonition, and give everlasting repose to 
the soul of your poor husband." This awful command 



68 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

could not be resisted, and the widow announced her 
compliance with it. 

As our conjuror, however, required money for the 
completion of his marriage, he resolved to work upon 
the fears of one Cornu, an old banker at Lyons, who 
had amassed immense wealth by usury and extortion. 
Having obtained an interview with the miser, he intro- 
duced the subjects of demons and spectres and the 
torments of purgatory ; and during an interval of 
silence, the voice of the miser's deceased father was 
heard complaining of his dreadful situation in pur- 
gatory, and calling upon his son to rescue him from 
his sufferings, by enabling Louis Brabant to redeem the 
Christians that were enslaved by the Turks. The awe- 
struck miser was also threatened with eternal dam- 
nation if he did not thus expiate his own sins ; but 
such was the grasp that the banker took of his gold, 
that the ventriloquist was obliged to pay him another 
visit. On this occasion, not only his father but all his 
deceased relations appealed to him in behalf of his 
own soul and theirs, and such was the loudness of their 
complaints that the spirit of the banker was subdued, 
and he gave the ventriloquist ten thousand crowns to 
liberate the Christian captives. When the miser was 
afterward undeceived, he is said to have been so morti- 
fied that he died of vexation. 

The ventriloquists of the nineteenth century made 
great additions to their art, and the performances of 
M. Fitz- James and M. Alexandre, which must have 
been seen by many of our countrymen, were far superior 
to those of their predecessors. Besides the art of 
speaking by the muscles of the throat and the abdomen, 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 69 

without moving those of the face, these artists had not 
only studied with great diligence and success the modi- 
fications which sounds of all kinds undergo from dis- 
tance, obstructions; and other causes, but had acquired 
the art of imitating them in the highest perfection. 
The ventriloquist was therefore able to carry on a 
dialogue in which the dramatis voces, as they may be 
called, were numerous ; and when on the outside of an 
apartment he could personate a mob with its infinite 
variety of noise and vociferation. Their influence over 
an audience was still further extended by a singular 
power over the muscles of the body. M. Fitz-James 
actually succeeded in making the opposite or cor- 
responding muscles act differently from each other ; 
and while one side of his face was merry and laughing, 
the other was full of sorrow and in tears. At one 
moment he was tall, thin, and melancholic ; and after 
passing behind a screen, he came out " bloated with 
obesity and staggering with fulness." M. Alexandre 
possessed the same power over his face and figure, and 
so striking was the contrast of two of these forms, that 
an excellent sculptor, Mr. Joseph, has perpetuated 
them in marble. 

This new acquirement of the ventriloquist enabled 
him, in his own single person, and with his own single 
voice, to represent upon the stage a dramatic com- 
position which would have required the assistance of 
several actors. Although only one character in the 
piece could be seen at the same time, yet they all ap- 
peared during its performance, and the change of the 
face and figure on the part of the ventriloquist was so 
perfect that his personal identity could not be recognised 



tO VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

in the dramatis personse. This deception was rendered 
still more complete by a particular construction of the 
dresses, which enabled the performer to re-appear 
in a new character after an interval so short that 
the audience necessarily believed that it was another 
person. 

It is a curious circumstance that Captain Lyon found 
among the Eskimaux of Igloolik ventriloquists of no 
mean skill. There is much rivalry among the professors 
of the art, who do not expose each other's secrets, and 
their exhibitions derive great importance from the rarity 
of their occurrence. The following account of one of 
them is so interesting, that we shall give the whole of 
it in Captain Lyon's words. 

" Among our Igloolik acquaintances were two females 
and a few male wizards, of whom the principal was 
Toolemak. This personage was cunning and intelligent, 
and, whether professionally, or from his skill in the 
chase, but perhaps from both reasons, was considered 
by all the tribe as a man of importance. As I inva- 
riably paid great deference to his opinion on all subjects 
connected with his calling, he freely communicated to 
me his superior knowledge, and did not scruple to 
alio v of my being present at his interviews with Tornga, 
or his patron spirit. In consequence of this, I took 
an early opportunity of requesting my friend to exhibit 
his skill in my cabin. His old wife was with him, and 
by much flattery and an accidental display of a glitter- 
ing knife and some beads, she assisted me in obtaining 
my request. All light excluded, our sorcerer began 
chaunting to his wife with great vehemence, and she 
in return answered by singing the Amna-aya, which 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 71 

was not discontinued during the whole ceremony. As 
far as I could hear, he afterward began turning him- 
self rapidly around, and in a loud, powerful voice, 
vociferated for Tornga with great impatience, at the 
same time blowing and snorting like a walrus. His 
noise, impatience, and agitation, increased every mo- 
ment, and he at length seated himself "on the deck, 
varying his tones, and making a rustling with his 
clothes. Suddenly the voice seemed smothered, and 
was so managed as to sound as if retreating beneath 
the deck, each moment becoming more distant, and 
ultimately giving the idea of being many feet below 
the cabin, when it ceased entirely. His wife now, in 
answer to my queries, informed me very seriously, that 
he had dived, and that he would send up Tornga. 
Accordingly, in about half a minute, a distant blowing 
was heard very slowly approaching, and a voice, which 
differed from that at first heard, was at times mingled 
with the blowing, until at length both sounds became 
distinct, and the old woman informed me that Tornga 
was come to answer my questions. I accordingly 
asked several questions of the sagacious spirit, to each 
of which inquiries I received an answer by two loud 
claps on the deck, which I was given to understand 
were favorable. 

" A very hollow yet powerful voice, certainly much 
different from the tones of Toolemak, now chanted for 
some time, and a strange jumble of hisses, groans, 
shouts, and gabbliugs like a turkey, succeeded in rapid 
order. The old woman sang with increased energy, 
and as I took it for granted that this was all intended 
to astonish the Kabloona, I cried repeatedly that I 



72 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

was very much afraid. This, as I expected, added 
fuel to the fire, until the poor immortal, exhausted by 
its own might, asked leave to retire. 

" The voice gradually sank from our hearing as at 
first, and a very indistinct hissing succeeded ; in its 
advance, it sounded like the tone produced by the wind 
on the bass chord of an iEolian harp. This was soon 
changed to a rapid hiss like that of a rocket, and 
Toolemak with a yell announced his return. I had 
held my breath at the first distant hissing, and twice 
exhausted myself ; yet our conjurer did not once respire, 
and even his returning and powerful yell was uttered 
without a previous stop or inspiration of air. 

"Light .being admitted, our wizard, as might be 
expected, was in a profouse perspiration, and certainly 
much exhausted by his exertions, which had continued 
for at least half an hour. We now observed a couple 
of bunches, each consisting of two strips of white deer- 
skin and a long piece of sinew, attached to the back of 
his coat. These we had not seen before, and were 
informed that they had been sewn on by Tornga while 
he was below."* 

Captain Lyon had the good fortune to witness 
another of Toolemak's exhibitions, and he was much 
struck with the wonderful steadiness of the wizard 
throughout the whole performance, which lasted an 
hour and a half. He did not once appear to move, for 
he was close to the skin behind which Captain Lyon 
did not hear the least rustling of his clothes, or even 

* Private Journal of Captain G. F. Lyon. Lond. 1824, 
p. 358, 361. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 13 

distinguish his breathing, although his outcries were 
made with great exertion. 



TJie following is a description of Ventriloqual ex- 
ercises performed by Professor Wyman : in 
zvhich he explains the finesse and manner of 
placing the muscles of the throat and tongue. 
The speaking Automata, in imitation of the 

KOMAN OUACLES. 

The first introduction of a speaking automata took 
place in the last century. It was the image of a body, 
and performed by a Spanish Count for the amusement 
of his visitors. An Automata was introduced into 
England some fifty years since, by a person with a 
wooden leg, and who for the exhibition of this figure 
alone received twenty pounds sterling a week. Mr. 
Mathews the accomplished commedian also introduced 
in one of his popular entertainments a speaking Tommy, 
as he called it. His performance of which did not add 
fresh laurels to his fame. It was from that gentleman 
I took the idea of introducing in my entertainment a 
speaking automata. 

The figure, when performed without the operator 
moving his lips — and holding a lighted candle to his 
mouth when the figure appears to speak — and appear- 
ing to drink also — is a pleasing and extraordinary piece 
of vocal deception as can be practised. The imagina- 
tion of the spectators is doubly kept in play, for they 
have the object before them, and the deception is so 
well kept up when the figure is made to move its lips, 
that repetitions of it, however numerous, are always 
amusing. 



74 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

The lips of my automaton are made to move by a 
small spring which I touch (when he appears to speak,) 
with the fore-finger of the right hand, the figure being 
held by the waist with the other fingers and thumb. 
The tone of the voice used for the figure can only be 
acquired by practice. It is not a natural tone, and as 
such must be found out by the practitioner in regulating 
the ventricles of the larynx, those of pain and the falsetto 
voice being produced altogether in that part. To keep 
the lips from moving the teeth must be compressed 
together, which keep the muscles of the face and lips 
from vibrating, but it is impossible for the letters B, 
Jf, P, to be articulated distinctly. The conversation 
must be adapted expressly for the figures when the 
letters B, M, and P, are seldom or never used. It is 
impossible for any man to speak and drink at the same 
time, although I always give such appearances that no 
one (but a person thoroughly acquainted with the 
anatomy of the throat,) would credit but that I did. 
The opening of the vinea-glottdus, (the chink by which 
we breathe,) which as it is narrower or wider modulates 
and tunes the voice ; is so exquisitely moved by its 
muscles, and so spasmodically shut when it is touched 
by a drop of water or a crumb of bread, that the valve 
of the glottis or the epi-glottis standing over it, flaps 
down like the key of a wind instrument, so that it is 
utterly impossible for any one to both articulate and. 
drink at the same time ; the best attempt to draw 
the breath while swallowing will produce an accident. 

In making the figure appear to speak during the 
time a lighted candle is held close to my lips, I need 
only add, that the quantity of air requisite to articulate 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 75 

or form the tone of the voice for the figure is so small 
that there is not sufficient force of air to move the 
flame in the least. 

To bring this feat of ventriloquism to the perfection 
of deceiving all beholders, a constant and unlimited 
practice of years is necessary. The quickest trans- 
action of the performers voice from the figures to his 
own, will take months of practise alone. The least 
mistake arising from the change of the voice, the spell 
is lost, and the operator may return his automaton to 
his chest till he gets fresh spectators. 

In the imitation of voices of adults, the contraction 
of the thyro-arytenoid muscles are used to increase or 
diminish the production of grouse or acute sounds, the 
contraction of these muscles, closes in part, the glottis, 
particularly the anterior half, the elongation or decura- 
tion of the trachea or portevent will occasion mortifi- 
cation. Also raising or depressing the velum palati 
will make the voice nearer or more remote, at the 
pleasure of the operator. When I introduce a gruff 
old man's voice, and want to make it appear at a dis- 
tance, I compress the tongue as if in the act of swal- 
lowing ; the ary-tenoid cartilages will then touch at 
their inner surfaces ; it is then I speak, (articulating 
with the tongue, shaped like a spoon, and in a per- 
pendicular position in the mouth) that the voice will 
have a grave, hollow, and smothered tone. The imagi- 
nation of the spectators having previously been down 
to the place where the supposed person is, and the voice 
so beautifully regulated as to imitate and be in unison 
of the same tone as a natural voice in the same place 
would be, the deception will be complete. The imagi- 



16 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

nation, is quite sufficient to account for all the phe- 
nomena of ventriloquism. In bringing the voice nearer, 
the tongue must be gradually brought to its proper 
position ; the effect of which will lessen the contraction 
of the thyro-arf-tenoicl muscles ; the voice will naturally 
grow more clear and louder as the contraction decreases. 
The vibration of the above muscles produce the vocal 
sound. In the production of the above voices there 
is a great distention in the epigastric region, that makes 
it impossible to continue the exertion long without 
fatigue. Indeed such is the exertion to produce the 
voice of a person at a distance, (the muscles of the 
throat and abdomen being in a state of severe contrac- 
tion,) that it is my firm opinion that no one could speak 
thirty seconds, and not change the tone of his voice 
without breaking a blood-vessel. 

But the natural voice of the practitioner in answering 
or asking questions of the supposed person obviates 
this inconvenience. It is in changing the natural voice 
so suddenly into the artificial that requires such immense 
practice and study. The novelty of asking and having 
to answer the different questions is of itself a task not 
very soon got over. Reader when you hear me ask in 
my own natural voice for a bottle of wine of a supposed 
person in the cellar — the whole of the abdominal with 
fifteen pair of muscles belonging to the throat have 
instantly to be contracted for the simple answer of 
\ what do you want V And when the voice approaches 
nearer, the contraction must be regulated that the voice 
appears to approach without the least motion of my 
lips or body. In fact the operator's situation is any- 
thing but agreeable ; having to compose the dialogue 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 77 

ask and answer the different questions — regulate the 

tension of the voice — and, for every sentence uttered 
by the supposed person, to contract the muscles of the 
throat and abdomen. 

Mimicry, or imitation of various animals and instru- 
ments is possessed by many ; indeed I have met several 
persons who could imitate noises which I found by 
reputed practice impossible for me to attain. The 
barking of a dog is produced by the breath of inspira- 
tion ; the growl is produced by placing the tongue 
close to the roof of the mouth, and the bark by suddenly 
placing the tongue in its proper place, lets the air have 
a sudden and free egress into the lungs. This noise, 
viz : barking, is modulated by the rising or depressing 
the velum palate. The grunting of the pig is occasioned 
in the same manner, viz : by inspiration, but the air 
drawn into the lungs is made to pass chiefly through 
the nostrils. The noise — hume — is produced by the air 
through the nostrils, and the squeak — whee — through 
the mouth, with the tongue in its proper position. 
The neighing of a foal is also imitated by the air of 
inspiration. Several imitations of animals besides 
those already mentioned, take place during inspiration ; 
but the old hypotheses of the ventriloquist speaking 
while the breath is passing into the lungs and not from 
them, is false ; ikis virtually impossible to utter any 
articulated sound, by the breath of inspiration, so as to 
be called articulate language. Let any person say 
the words hume, whee, during the inspiration of the 
breath, and he will find that instead of saying the words 
distinctly, so as to be understood, that he will give a 
pretty fair imitation of the pig. The buzzing of the 



18 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

fly may be produced by placing the upper lip about 
half an inch over the lower lip, and blowing the air 
between them. The claying of a child is produced by 
a small quill being cut at one end when you commence 
to make a pen the first cut must be drawn near to the 
end but not entirely off, then cut the quill or tube from 
the stalk, place the end in the mouth that is cut, blow 
down it and it will produce a squeaking sound similar 
to a child crying ; this is modulated by the hand cover- 
ing, or partially covering the open end of the quill. 
The common method of imitating birds is produced by 
the common bird call, used by many sportsmen ; a 
piece of tin perfectly round, the shape or size of a 
dollar, is bent so as to produce half a circle ; in the 
centre of the flat end is punched a hole large enough 
for three pins to be placed in ; this being placed in the 
mouth, the round edges between the lips, will produce 
a whistle similar to several birds. 

I respectfully acquaint the reader that I do not use 
one of these instruments. The din of expiration passed 
through the nose during the mechanical raising and 
falling of the larynx, will regulate the size of the 
aperture of the glottis, which notes may then be pro- 
duced by close attention to a most fatiguing practice. 
The imitation of the same is produced by making a 
noise similar to hawking, viz : if a person will place 
his tongue in the same position as he does when hawk- 
ing previous to spitting, and modulate the tone of the 
noise so caused, which noise must be produced by both 
the air of inspiration and expiration, he will have a 
good imitation of the carpenters' saw. The plane is 
imitated in a similar manner, only it requires more 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 79 

modulation. False ventriloquism or false modulation 
of the voice, is produced by the common hat which the 
operator wears. Let him place himself in a closet in 
his own house out of the view of the audience — then 
suppose that in this closet there are stairs that lead to 
the rooms below — let him call loud for any person — 
for instance, he says, who is down there ? he must then 
place his hat over his face which will . completely 
smother his voice, which must be an imitation of some 
one, not his own natural voice. He must then answer 
with the hat compressed to his face — the answer of the 
supposed person. The voice .of the supposed person 
is made to appear nearer by taking the hat gradually 
from the face, — the closer the hat is compressed the 
farther off will the voice appear, if well managed by 
the operator in keeping the imagination of his audience 
in good play. This is the difference between real and 
artificial modulation of the voice. A clever ventrilo- 
quist or vocal modulator is able to converse before his 
audience and modulate his voice without moving the 
muscles of his face ; whereas merely a mimic will pass 
himself off as a ventriloquist or vocal modulator, by 
keeping his person invisible. 



SECOND SIGHT MYSTERY. 

As a great deal of anxiety has been manifested in 
every part of the community respecting this very suc- 
cessful and ingenious method of silent telegraphing, or, 
in other terms, the. phenomena of Second Sight, or 
seeing without eyes, and by many called, " Clairvoy- 



80 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

ance," for this reason I feel it my duty, as well as a 
gratification to myself and others, to make some com- 
ment upon the subject, together with a brief explanation 
of the manner in which it may be performed. 

When the " Second Sight Mystery " was first intro- 
duced, it was not intended for a speculative trick, or to 
be introduced before the fashionable assemblages of 
our theatres, museums, and public places of amusement, 
but was simply designed for the social circle and fire- 
side amusement. We could scarcely conceive of a 
more pleasant yet innocent recreation than that of the 
present method of seeing, as it were, without the use 
of our eyes. One of the party being brought forward, 
and carefully blindfolded, or even placed in an adjoin- 
ing room, may readily conceive the name and descrip- 
tion of every article held in the hands of the opposite 
party, without the least recourse or bribery or accom- 
plicy. We are well aware that even all the principal 
tricks of jugglers, magicians, &c, as practiced at 
present, are accomplished by means of collusion through 
a third person. But in the present no such recourse is 
necessary, as any two persons, by committing to memory 
the following examples, are enabled to perform the 
experiment of second sight. I am well satisfied that 
there are at present numerous professors of mesmerism 
and pretended clairvoyants who are continually im- 
pressing upon the minds of the public that they, the 
clairvoyants, are enabled, through the medium of electro 
or animal magnetism, to distinguish and describe 
foreign lands, hidden treasures, and even to tell the 
thoughts of those whom they never seen, and could not 
have had any correspondence whatever. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 81 

All this they profess to do without any recourse to 
bribery or the optical vision. 

This illusion they have carried very successful for a 
number of years, and in fact the community never re- 
cognized the second sight under any other circumstances 
than when connected with demonstrations of their 
so-called clairvoyance. I have frequently, when exhibit- 
ing this experiment in various parts of the country, 
been very much annoyed by sudden contentions arising 
out of inconceivable ideas respecting the manner of 
correspondence. 

One says it is clairvoyance, another mesmerism, or 
psychology : some say it is a spiritual manifestation, 
others say ventriloquism. Thus we see many ideas 
advanced by many different people ; yet all are totally 
ignorant of the true method of its accomplishment. A 
careful perusal of the following book will scatter every 
erroneous idea concerning the supposed miracle. This 
beautiful trick has progressed rapidly from its infancy, 
and was for a great length of time withheld from the 
criticism of the public, and only exhibited in private 
circles, but recently it has acquired a considerable 
popularity, and is now daily astonishing the multitudes 
who witness its demonstrations with wonder and 
delight. 

NOTICE. *? 

The science of " Second Sight " teaches any person 
the true method by which they are enabled, through 
the medium of sound, to distinguish the color, name, 
and quality of any articles that may be held in the 
hands of an operator. Also, to tell the number, dates, 
quantity, time, direction, &c, during which time the 



82 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

subject may be satisfactorily blindfolded, or even" placed 
in some other apartment, will readily describe all the 
above-named orders to which it belongs, thus making 
it a highly interesting exhibition of ingenuity and 
talent. It is not expected, however, that every person 
who reads this little book intends putting the examples 
into practice, but the reading of it once through is well 
worth the price asked for it, and a gratification to know 
that the "secret is out." 



CLAIRVOYANCE EXPOSED; 

OR, THE SECOND-SIGHT MYSTERY. 
AS PERFORMED ORIGINALLY BY MRS. HANNINGTON, PRO- 
FESSOR WYMAN, ROBERT HELLER, AND MRS. LOOMIS, 



LESSON I. 

Note. — Great care should be taken by the operator 
not to place the least stress or to emphasize upon any 
letter f word, or sound. Speak natural, loud, and dis- 
tinct, in order that the subject may hear with accuracy 
every sound that is" uttered. The subject must also 
speak loud and distinct, so that the audience may hear 
every answer clearly. All the cues in this science are 
thuSj and must be impressed upon the mind of both 
the subject and the operator, but not regarded in any 
example of communication. 

A correct distinction of all colors may be known 
by the following examples : — ■ 

example I. 
Wnat color? White. 
"What is the color ? Black. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 83 

What color is this ? Red. 
Name the color ? Blue. 
Describe the color ? Green. 

Can you tell the color of this, that, or them ? 
Yellow. 

What is color as near as you can tell ? Brown. 
What is color of the article ? Gray. 
Tell me what color, &c. ? Mixed. 

EXAMPLE II. 

Tell me the color of this handkerchief? Mixed 
colors ; and red the most prominent color, &c. 

Note. — The best method to distinguish any variety 
of mixed colors is first to distinguish the most promi- 
nent color of the article by first asking any one of the 
above direet questions denoting its most prominent 
color, and immediately after the answer is given it 
should be repeated thus : 

Describe the color? Green. Repeat Green ? Yes, 
a variety of mixed colors, but green is the most promi- 
nent. 

Thus all mixed colors may be known in a corres- 
ponding manner. 

LESSON II. 

TABLE OF NUMERALS. 

What Number of any article Denotes 1 

What 'is the Number of any article " 2 

What Number can you see of any article " 3 
What Number can you tell of any article " 4 
Count the Number of any article " 5 

Please to count the number signifies that more than 
five are to be enumerated when the signal bell may be 



84 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

acceded to, and subject commences to count slowly the 
number specified. Thus : 





1 


Ring. 


2 


3 


4 5 6 


1 


2 


» 


3 


4 


5 6 7 


1 2 


3 


a 


4 


5 


6 7 8 


12 3 


4 


<< 


5 


6 


7 8 9 


12 3 4 


5 


a 


6 


t 


8 9 10 


12 3 4 5 


6 


it 


7 


8 


9 10 11 


12 3 4 5 6 


7 


u 


8 


9 


10 11 12 


12 3 4 5 6 1 


8 


n 


9 


10 


11 12 13 


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 


9 


it 


10 


11 


12 13 14 


23456789 


10 


u 


11 


12 


13 14 15 



The above is only a fac-simile of the ordinary addi- 
tion-table, (as 1 and 5 are 6, or 10 and 5 are 15,) the 
highest number being the one thought of. It would 
not be appropriate to adopt this principle to enumerate 
more than 25, as it becomes tedious to calculate so 
slowly in order to arrive at the intended number ; con- 
sequently I have annexed a few simple questions to 
denote any number more than 25, or less than 100. 

Thus : 

LESSON III. 
What Number of any article, and 

Repeat « 
What is the Number of any article, and 

Repeat 
What Number can you see of any article, and 

Repeat " " 

What Number can you tell of any article, and 

Repeat w " 

Count the Number of any article, and 

Repeat " 



Ring 


30 


n 


35 


it 


40 


u 


45 


[ " 


50 


a 


55 


\ " 


60 


u 


65 


a 


70 


(t 


75 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 85 

Tell me the Number of any article, and u 80 

Repeat " H M « 85 

Please to count the Number of any article, and " 90 

Repeat " " " " 95 

What three figures denote the number " 100 

Note. — Should the answer of any intermediate 
number be demanded, as 31 for example, the question 
denoting 30 would be asked thus: 

What Number of, &c. ? Please to count them ? 

What Number denotes 30, and the remark, i( please 
to count," signifies that there were more than five more 
in contemplation. Thus, the subject imagines 30, and 
commences to count thus, 1, 2, Ring. We now have 
by this process 32 and the 5 additional, as 32 -|- 5 are 
SI. 

LESSON IV. 

What do I hold in my hand ? A pair of gloves. 

Are they ladies' or gentlemen's gloves? Ladies' 
gloves. 

Now reverse the question thus : 

Are they gentlemen's or ladies' gloves ? Gentle- 
men's gloves. (See example for color.) 

What kind of an instrument is this ? A pocket- 
knife. (See color of handle, &c.) 

What number of blades ? One. 

What is the number of blades ? Two. 

What number can you see ? Three. 

What number can you tell? Four. If more than 
five, refer to the table of Numerals. 

Here's a rare article, what is it ? A handkerchief. 

What color? White. 



86 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

What quality ? Linen. 

What is the quality ? Cotton. 

Can you tell me the quality ? Silk. 

Describe the quality of this or that ? Cloth. (See 
color.) 

What is this? A porte-monnaie or pocket-book. 
(Repeat.) 

" A porte-monnaie" or pocket-book ; but which of 
the two is it ? A porte-monnaie. (Reverse as in 
gloves.) 

What is this I hold in my hand ? A watch. 

What quality? Silver. 

Can you tell me the quality ? It has the appear- 
ance of gold. 

Answer the question direct? I would take it for 
gold. 

Can you tell me the quality ? It has the appear- 
ance of gold. 

"Appearance" of gold ; what do you mean by 
that ? I mean, it's a poor example for genuine, like 
the owner. 

What have Jin my hand ? A hat. (See color.) 

What kind of a Fancy article is this ? A snuff or 
tobacco-box ? (Reverse as in porte-monnaie, gloves, 
Ac.) 

What does this instrument pertain to ? To music. 

Here is a very curious instrument, what is it ? A 
lancet. 

Describe the nature of the article I hold in my 
hand ? An opera-glass. 

If you can discriminate an article through the back 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 87 

of your heady tell me what this is ? An umbrella. (See 
color, &c) 

Here, what do you call this ? A cap. (See color,) 

Here, what's this ? A cigar. 

Here, what's this for? A cigar-case. (Repeat.) 

A case ? A cigar-holder. 

What kind of an article is this ? A cane. (See color.) 

Here is a common article, what is it ? A tumbler. 

Here is something else! A stick of some kind. 

Do you know what this is ? A toothpick. 

What quality ? Ivory. 

What quality, direct? Silver. 

What kind ? Goose-quill. 

Can you tell the quality direct? Gold. 

Here is an article of great value, what is it ? A 
pair of spectacles. (See quality, &c.) 

The gentleman desires you to name this article ? A 
boot. 

The gentleman is anxious you tell what this is ? A 
shoe. 

I believe I am puzzled to know what this is, can you 
tell ? Curiosity (curiosity), spoken with surprise ; but 
it is a greater curiosity for me to see and not know 
what you know and don't see. 

This article the owner prefers to keep ? A comb. 
If but one comb, answer instantly (correct) ; if it 
should be a pair of combs, make a slight pause between 
the word comb and the word correct. 

Here is an article used by ladies, what is it ? A 
pencil. (See color and quality.) 

What is this article used for? Soap 

What are these ? A pair of scissors. 

Tell me what this is ? India-rubber. 

Please to tell me what these are ? A pair of 
tweezers. 

Will you tell me what this is ? A pocket-slate. 

Here's a lady's favorite article, what is it ? A ring. 
(See quality.) 



88 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 

What does this gentleman hold in his hand ? A 
musical instrument. 

What does this lady hold in her hand ? A bonnet. 

This is of some importance, what is it ? A penny. 

Here is an exceeding common article, what is it ? 
A book. Correct. Should the word a book be re- 
peated, it signifies a blank book. (See comb, for 
example.) 

What kind of a book? A map. 

Name this f A nail. 

Hand me some other article; but never mind — A 
screw. 

A screw f A corkscrew. 

What do you see in my hand ? A bottle. 

What does this box contain, or for? A match- 
box. 

What kind of a box is this ? A cap-box. 

What quality of box is this ? A fancy or toilet- 
box 

What kind of money or coin is this ? It is no 
money. 

What is it then f A medal. 

What is this glass for f An eye-glass. 

A genVs favorite article ? A watch-guard. 

Repeat a watch-guard ? A watch-chain. (See 
quality.) 

What does this belong to f A watch. 

What part? The seal. (See quality.) 

What part of apparel is this ? A lady's shawl. 

Name this for the lady or gent, as the case may be ? 
A ribbon. 

Tell the lady or gent what this is ? Lace. 

What do ladies use this for ? Thread. 

Can you tell what this is ? A key. (Remark.) A 
key ? A safe-key. 

What is this key used for ? A door-key. 

When is this key used ? At night, or night-key. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 89 

What do you think it is used for ? A trunk-key. 

What use does the owner make of it ? A watch- 
key. 

What quality of key ? Iron. 

Can you tell me the quality ? Brass. 

Can you tell me the quality direct % Gold. 

Can you tell me what these are ? A bunch of keys. 

Count the number? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. (If more than 
five, then resort to the bell as before.) 

Here's an article — I scarcely know what it is my- 
self? A stone. (Remark.) A stone ? A marble. 

What color ? White. 

What is it used for f Chalk. 

What color is this stone, and what is it used for ? 
Red chalk. 

This is something of vast importance to every man, 
what is it ? A piece of money or coin. 

What quality ? Silver. 

What value ? Three cents. 

Mow much value ? Five cents. 

How much is the value ? Six and a quarter cents. 

How much is it worth ? Ten cents. 

What value is this coin ? Twenty-live cents. 

What is it worth f Fiity cents. 

What is this coin worth f One dollar. 

This is something of vast importance, &c. 

Can you tell me the quality direct? Gold coin. 

What value f One dollar* 

How much value ? Two dollars and fifty cents. 

How much is the value ? Three dollars. 

Of how much is the value ? Five dollars. 

What is this coin worth? Ten dollars. 

What is the extreme value of this coin? Twenty 
dollars. 

What two figures denote its value ? Fifty dollars. 

What kind of a book is this, or the gentleman has 
just handed me a valuable book, &c. ? It is no book. 

What is it then ? A bank note. 



90 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 

What value f One dollar. 

Mow much value f Two dollars. 

How much is the value t Three dollars. 

How much is it worth f Pour dollars. 

Of how much is the value f Five dollars. 

How much is this note worth f Ten dollars. 

What is the extreme value of this note f Twenty 
dollars. 

What two figures denote its denomination ? Fifty 
dollars. 

What three figures denote its denomination ? One 
hundred dollars. 

What state ? The present state. 

What city or town ? The present. 

What day ? What week ? What time ? What 
date, &c. ? Always the present subject then in view. 

EXAMPLE. 

What day did he or she go ? To-day. 

What year ? 1855, &c. 

The following examples are calculated to denote 
within fifteen minutes of any required time. 

From these examples we find but two hours speci- 
fied by the questions. And it is expected that every 
subject, when about to perform this experiment, can 
certainly judge within two hours of the correct time. 

Thus he can apply the following rule at any time, 
day or night. Should the hands of the watch or clock 
be at great variance with the correct time, you may 
then refer to the numeral table to find out the figures 
denoting such time. Then add this rule, and you 
cannot fail to arrive at the correct time denoted by 
such watch, let it be right or wrong, 

What time is it by this watch ? (Ring.) Eight 
o'clock exactly, or one hour before the time designed 
to be answered. 

What time is it now? (Ring,) Fifteen minutes 
after eight. 

What time at present ? (Ring.) Half-past eight. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 91 

Can you tell the time? (Ring.) Fifteen minutes 
to nine o'clock. 

What time is it by this watch ? Nine o'clock. (The 
exact intermediate time designed to be answered.) 

What time is it now ? Fifteen minutes after nine. 

What time at present ? Half-past nine. 

Can you tell the time? Fifteen minutes to ten 
o'clock. 

What is the exact time ? Ten o'clock. 



BELL QUESTIONS. 

Bell questions are voluntary terms made use of, and 
not being a direct question put to the subject ; but the 
remark made to terminate by one stroke of the bell. 
By this process it seems that the bell is the only medium 
by which the intelligence is given ; thus it always con- 
founds the mind of the spectator, how that, by the 
same one direct and only sound of the signal-bell, could 
give sufficient intelligence for the explanation of the 
color and quality of a difficult article (say the entire 
description of a watch, and time likewise.) In order 
to make this appear plain, I have annexed a few exam- 
ples. Thus, addressing the persons present: 

Subjects are enabled by this process to see as it 
were any article in posession of another. Ring. A 
lady's muff. 

Some very industrious person must have brought 
this article. Ring. A thimble. 

Iwill pass this article out of my hand into that of 
yours, sir. Ring. A money-purse. 

It does seem a mystery even to me to see and know 
how this trick is accomplished. Ring. A miniature. 

Many persons would be easily convinced that this 
was actually clairvoyance, but we repeat this is a trick 
forever. Ring. A lady's veil. 

This trick is well calculated to confound the minds 
of many intelligent men. Ring. A letter. 



92 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

This trick is susceptible of being carried to a greater 
perfection than this. Ring. A card. 

We make many mistakes but seldom detected. Ring. 
A necklace or pertaining to the neck. 

I wonder if the subject foresees the articles held up. 
Ring. A garment. 

We admit of this as being a trick only, yet a very 
novel one too. Ring. A paper. Ring. A news- 
paper. 

This principle so frequently manifested, I was 
a going to say by gentlemen, but never mind. Ring. 
A rule. Ring. A tape line or rule. 

Ah ! this is handsome enough. Ring. A breastpin. 

The subject sees these articles as readily as you do. 
Ring. A looking-glass. 

A toy may be known by one full stroke of the bell, 
during a short interval, say five seconds, or thereabouts. 

An arnament may be known by a half condensed 
stroke of the bell, by making one stroke and immedi- 
ately touching the bell with the ends of the fingers, 
stopping off the sound. 

Inclose this article in your hand. Ring. A buckle. 
This is a precious good trick, yet there are but few 
who can carry it out successfully. Ring. A lock of 
hair. 

Young man, hold that in your hand. There's a but- 
ton for you. 

It matters not what the articles are, but all will be 
readily described alike. Ring. A check. Repeat 
a check. A pass check. 

What is this check used for ? A baggage check. 

Produce any article you please for description. Ring. 
A keepsake. 

This is a (interrupted by a — ). Ring. A lady's 

reticule. 

It is surprising to sen how articles are described so 
accurately. Ring. Sealing wax. 

I thank you for that. Ring. A piece of candy. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADS EASY, AC. 93 

'^ -j this is pretty good, I guess I'll keep it. Ring. 
yry. 

j of this would be agreeable. Ring. Fruit. 

Have you any more of the same sort ? Ring. Pass 
that spice over this way. 

Well ! well ! what uext will people hand up ? Ring. 
A file. 

Communications in this science are simple enougli 
for any one to acquire in a short time. Ring. A brush, 
(Correct.) repeat a brush! A tooth brush. 

It becomes very difficult to describe articles, particu- 
larly if we do not know what they are. Ring. Den- 
tal or surgical instrument. 

Which is it, the first or last named instrument ? The 
first, or a dental instrument. (Reverse for the op- 
posite.) 

I presume he or she can tell what it is. Ring. 
Needles, [repeat ring .) Pins. 



BELL EXERCISES 

Are only repeated strokes of the bell denoting the time 
when the articles are held up withont using any lan- 
guage as a corresponding medium. (See example.) 
Ring. 1. A pair of glomes. 

" 2. A handkerchief. 
3. A hat. 

* 4. A black hat. 

" 5. A cap. 

" G. A black cap. 
1. A lady. 

14 8. A lady's hand 

" 9. A lady's bonnet. 

" 4 10. A garment. 

" 11. A nose. 

" 12. A rumsucker'snose (changing to another) 

" 13. He professes to be a gentleman. 

u 14. Deeply in love. 



94 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &G. 

" 15. With ladies and whiskey. 
" 16. Shall I count the ladies he loves ? 
u IT. {This ring denotes yes.) 
" 18. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. T. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 
15. 16. 11. 18. 19. 20. (Interrupted.) Hold on ! hold on! 

Why does he love so many ? He follows your ex- 
ample. 

What example ? To fall in love with all he meets, 
whether they be white or black. 

That will do, I perceive you know it all. 

Note. — The operator during these exercises should 
be very careful to know that he can procure the above 
list of articles, or at least a similar list which he can 
arrange at any time with his subject ; and you can 
change your list each evening at pleasure, and not be 
confined exclusively to the above memoranda. 

Note. — The following examples will correctly denote 
any century or date, from 1854 back to 1400. Articles 
or coin dated further back than this will seldom if ever 
be offered for explanation. 

EXAMPLE. 

What date is this coin or article, &c. f 1800. 

Of what date, &c. ? U00. 

Tell the date, &c. ? 1600. 

Can you tell the date, fee. ? 1500. 

Describe the date, &c. ? 1400. 

Two special questions will be given to denote 1853 
and 54, as so many articles are presented having one 
of the above dates. 

What date is this ? 1854. 

What date do you see ? 1853. 

In order to ascertain any intermediate date, as 1804 
for example. 

What date, or What number can you tell? 1804. 

See the first example on page 54, u iuhat date f by 
this we have 18 or 1800. " What number can you 
tell ? » (see page 49), we have 4 or 04 ; thus 18—04 
or 1804. Suppose the number to be answered was 1710. 



VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, AC 95 

<< Of what date f Please count." 1700 — 1, 5, 3, 4, 
5, (King). 6, 1,8,9, 10— 1U0. 

Thus we have at once 1700 and 10 or IT 10. 

In these examples it will be well to get a perfect 
knowledge of the tables of Numerals, and particularly 
the exercises of the bell. 

Now suppose the date to be 1830. Example. 

What date or number ? Ring. 1830. 
What date f 1800. 

What number ? Ring. 30. Thus we have 1830— 
a repeated stroke of the bell denotes five above as usual. 
Thus 1830. Ring. 1835, and all other numbers to be 
calculated in the same manner. 

In no case must the subject name the century until 
he has first ascertained the additional number of years, 
as in 1710, " of what date," must be borne in mind 
until the remaining numbers be calculated, thus answer- 
ing two questions at once. (i Of what date f " " Please 
count?" Thus 1710. * 

Ring A, B. 

" A, B, C, D, E, P, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O. 
" A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, ST, O. 
" A, B, C, I), E, F, G, H, I, J, K. Ring. Thus 
we have spelled out the word book — and any corres- 
pondence can be conducted in the very same manner. 

A list of articles generally presented by the audience 
for description : 

Hats, Caps, Gloves, Canes, Watches and Chains, 
Keys, Pencils, Rings, Books, Coins, Bank notes, Medals, 
Snuff boxes, Tobacco boxes, Match boxes, Cap boxes, 
Fancy boxes, Strings, Sticks, Stones, Paper, Letters, 
Combs, Handkerchiefs, Breast pins, Pocket knives, 
Screws, Nails, Tooth brushes, Dental instruments, 
Surgical instruments, Musical instruments, Maps, 
Shawls, Cards, Cravats, Pens, Thimbles, Brushes, 
Buttons, Mirrors, Garments, Ribbons, Tape, Laces, 

* It was impossible to give the correct dates without first 
uniting two distinct questions "by the word "or," thus 
making them appear "but one question. 



96 VENTRILOQUISM MADE EASY, &C. 

Cord, Scissors, Thread, Needles, Pins, Muffs, Spec- 
tacles, Cases, Cigars, Purses, Veils, Watch guards, 
Ladies' reticules, Tuning forks, Pocket slates, Pass 
checks, Sealing wax, Tape lines, Locks of hair, Opera 

] glasses, Eye glasses, Lancets, Keepsakes, Umbrellas, 
Buckles, Files, Bottles, Perfumery, Candy, Fruit, 

a Spices, Toys, Miniatures, Boots, Shoes, Tumblers, 
Cloth, India-rubber, Soap. 

^ Names or articles can be spelled out in the very same 

way alphabetically. (Example.) 

CONCLUSION. 
*J We now have had a brief illustration of the myste- 

^ ries of " Second Sight," or the pretended art of seeing 
a without eyes. You have, I hope, found it to be a 

c ^ pleasant and interesting study ; and should you wish 

c< to introduce the experiments before an audience or 
private party, bring your subject before the visitors ; 
ai now take a pocket handkerchief and fold it up and 

0] place it over the eyes of the subject, with face first to 

k ( the company ; then make a few polite remarks respect- 

ing the trick as not being clairvoyance, mesmerism, 
ventriloquism, or any other of the popular illusions of 
the day. 

Now procure some of the articles contained in the 

list ; after a few have been named, remark to the 

company that you believe the subject can see through 

the handkerchief; and you will please the company 

better by turning your back to them and then describe 

* the articles held up ; or should there be an adjoining 

room convenient, place your subject in that, under such 

circumstances, however, that they are enabled to hear 

every sound that is uttered distinctly. 

f N. B. — Should any articles be presented in the course 

of your experiments not contained in the list, you must 

then prepare yourself with some new cue in the list; 

tl . in this way you will soon be able to swell up the cata- 

t £j logue to a wonderful size, by writing all your new 

questions down on paper and committing them to 

memory as the others. 



or 



VALUABLE WORKS ON MAGIC, &c., 

PUBLISHED A2JD FOR SALE BY 

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Sent free of postage on receipt of price in money or stamps. 



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Book of Fate, found in the Cabinet of Napoleon Bona- 
parte, who estimated it as his greatest treasure, being in 
the habit of consulting it on all momentous occasions, and 
having always found its revelations the truest insight into 
futurity. Price only 25 cents, and the book sent free of 
postage. 

Second Series; being the Newest Tricks of Deception, De- 
veloped and Illustrated. To which is added an Exposure 
of the Second-Sight Mystery. Also, an Exposuie of the 
Card Tricks made use of by professional card-players and 

• sporting men. By Wyman, Wizard and Ventriloquist. 
Price 12 cents. 



100 TRICKS WITH CARDS. 

J. H. Green, the Reformed Gambler, has just authorized the 
publication of a New Edition of his book entitled 

GAMBLERS' TRICKS WITH CARDS 

EXPOSED AND EXPLAINED. 



VALUABLE WOEKS OK MAGIC, &fc. f 

PUBLISHED AM) FOR SALE BY 

WYMAN THE WIZARD, 

PHILADELPHIA. 
&e?# /;*££ of postage on receipt of prUje trn monetf or stomps i 



THE MAGICIAN'S OWN BOOK; 

OR, 

THE WHOLE ART OF CONJURING. 

Being a Complete Hand-Book of Parlor Magic, containing 
over One Thousand Optical, Chemical, Mechanical, Mag- 
netical and Magical Experiments, Am ulrtfig' Transmuta- 
tions, Astonishing Sleights and Subtleties, Celebrated Card 
Deceptions, Ingenious Tricks and Numbers, Curious and 
Entertaining Puzzles ; Together with all the Most Noted 
Tricks of Modern Performers. The whole Illustrated 
with over Five Hundred Wood Cuts, and intended as a 
source of amusement for One Thousand and One Evenings. 
12mo, cloth, 400 pages, gilt side and back stamp. Price, $1. 

The Secret Out; 

OK, 

ONE THOUSAND TRICKS WSTH CARDS, 

And Other Recreations. 

Illustrated with over 300 Engravings. 

By the Author of "The Sociable,*' "The Magician's Own 
Book," "Private Theatricals,'' etc. Large 12mo, cloth, 
gilt side and back. Price, $1. 



10,000 Wonderful Things. 

Comprising the Marvellous and Rare, Odd, Curious, Quaint, 
Eccentric and Extraordinary, in all Ages and Nations, in 
Art, Nature and Science, including many Wonders of the 
World, enriched with Hundreds of Authentic Illustrations 
Edited by Edmund Fii.lingham King, M.A., Author of 
"Life of Newton." &c, &c. 12mo, cloth, gilt side ai.d 
' back. Price. $1. 



THE BOOK OF PARLOR GAMES. 

Containing Explanations, of the most Approved Games of 
Society, viz: Games of Motion, Attention, Memory, Mys- 
tification and Fun, Gallantry and Wit, Forfeits, Penalties, 
&c. Translated from the French. With Six Illustrations. 
12mo, muslin. Price, $1.00. 



